Defeat of the Heart
by blkdrgn
Summary: Kaiba issues a challenge which Yugi can’t refuse. Loss will put both Yugi’s life as he knows it and his sanity at stake, for Kaiba is perversely obsessed with victory. However, Kaiba is not the only one with secret longings. final ch up!
1. The Price of Arrogance

Prologue: The Price of Arrogance

As he trudged home to his apartment, Jounouchi Katsuya looked up at the sound of shuffling feet.  He reacted seconds too late; each cost him dearly in agony.  Fists lit into his face, booted feet slammed into his ribs…  He fell to the soggy, slimy stones of the alleyway as his six assailants surrounded him.  Consciousness eluded him, and black dots twirled before his eyes.  "Ungh," Jounouchi groaned as he vainly attempted to rise.  One of the gorilla-like men belted him, and he crashed back to the ground.  Jounouchi's entire being quivered with rage.  However, he could no sooner get up than retract his fateful decision to take this shortcut home from Yugi's house.  _This is the price of arrogance…what comes of thinking you can overpower everything in the streets_, he thought.  None too clear, of course, but that was to be expected.  Numerous bruises and lumps were obscuring his handsome features as the moon eclipses the sun.  His last conscious memory consisted of the leader of his attackers clouting him on the jaw.


	2. Jounouchi is Missing

Chapter One Jounouchi is Missing

                At school the next day, Mutou Yugi worriedly surveyed Jounouchi's empty seat.  Jounouchi had been prime for a beating in Duel Monsters at Yugi's hands just the night before.  Why hadn't he come to school?  It was already lunchtime.  Yugi thought long and hard about the duels, the night before.  They had progressed in the usual fashion: Jounouchi had come close to beating him, but at the last minute, the cards would favor Yugi with victory.  Somehow Yugi sensed the losses were connected to Jounouchi's disappearance.

                "It troubles me, too, aibou," Yami said.  "Before he left, Jounouchi mentioned that even if he couldn't beat you in Duel Monsters, he could still take down any bully he came across on the way home."

                  Yugi suddenly envisioned Jounouchi, upset with his losing, seeking out unlucky victims to beat up on his way home.  Though it wasn't a particularly flattering way to think of his friend, the possibility seemed more than plausible the more he considered it.  Perhaps Jounouchi had been badly beaten and had just managed to stagger home.  It was possible that he had not even been able to get out of bed this morning…  Yugi looked at the empty desk again as though willing Jounouchi to materialize on the top of it.  "After school I'm going to visit Jounouchi," he decided aloud.

                "Talking to yourself again, Yugi?" Honda said, grabbing Yugi in a headlock.

                "Honda-kun," Yugi said weakly.

                Yami rolled his eyes.  It always irritated him when people forgot him.

                "Where's Jounouchi?" Honda asked.  "It's not like him to just stay at home all day."

                Yugi shrugged.  "I'm going over to his place after school to see what's up."

                "He probably got into a fight on the way home," Honda said.  "I bet he'll be happy to have some visitors, and we can see how badly he got his ass kicked."  

Honda didn't seem worried in the least, Yugi decided.  Perhaps he and his yami were making too big of a deal out of his disappearance.

At the end of the day, Honda and Yugi set off for Jounouchi's apartment.  On the way Honda continued to make cracks about Jounouchi picking on cranky old matrons until even Yugi's yami was smiling.  However, their smiles all faded after the tenth knock on the door.

"Hey Jounouchi!" Honda yelled.  "Are you dead in there?"

"Jounouchi-kun!" Yugi called.

"Nothing," Honda observed after they had stood on the doorstep for another ten minutes.  "That's odd.  You'd think we would at least have heard him swear at us.  I wonder if he made it home last night."

Violent trembling seized Yugi as all the old feelings returned.  "Honda-kun," Yugi said, "I think I know where Jounouchi might be.  The alley near the game shop…  It's a short-cut to this apartment."

Honda's eyes widened.  "Impossible!  Jounouchi knows better than to go there late at night!  That's when all the strongest gangs come out…"

"I don't know," Yugi remarked.  "I beat him pretty bad in Duel Monsters yesterday before he went home.  Maybe he…wasn't thinking…"

"Yeah, that does sound like something he would do," Honda said.  "Stupid, proud asshole!" he seethed.

Growing more uneasy by the second, Yugi and Honda hurried to the Kame Game Shop.  When they reached the store, Yugi pointed to the dismal, narrow alley that ran alongside it.  "That's where I think he went."

"Dammit!"  Honda gritted his teeth.  "Come on," he urged Yugi, who was hesitating before the slimy maw of the passage.

The two boys moved stealthily through the alleyway.  The walls reeked like an unaired tomb.  Yugi gagged, and Honda wrinkled his nose.  A deathly stillness lingered in the shade of the overhanging buildings, a silence which both boys were reluctant to break.  The passage wound on past dumpsters and lonely porches, twisting like a giant serpent skin.  Just when Yugi thought that he could not stand the stench any longer, Honda stopped.  He crouched over a spot that seemed to have nothing significant about it…at first.

"What is it, Honda-kun?" Yugi asked.

"This is blood," Honda said in a concerned tone.  He swirled his finger around in the alley muck and held it up for Yugi's inspection.  Sure enough, mingled with the slime and the dirt were unmistakable red droplets.

"That doesn't mean anything!" Yugi burst out.  "Lots of people get beaten up in this alley every day!  I bet that at least half of them bleed all over the place!"

Honda gasped and sprang to his feet.  "Look, Yugi!"  He followed the little droplets of blood to a filthy corner.  "Jounouchi's cards!"

Yugi gasped in horror.  Blood stained the face of Time Magician and had caked several corners of the deck together.  "So Jounouchi-kun _was_ here," he whispered.  "But where is he now?"

{********************************************************************************************************************}

All the Duel Monster Card names I have used are translations for the Japanese cards.  I have found that card name translations tend to describe the card function (for example, Time Magician).  Nonetheless, if you find it confusing, please say so in your review.  I am considering switching the names to the English ones (but only if enough people tell me, since I think that the English card names make for an aesthetic disaster.)  

Just a little disclaimer for sue-happy people who may be reading this fic.  I claim no ownership to Yu-gi-oh, its characters, and so forth.  I'm just a starving authoress offering the greatest anime of all time a work of fandom.  Please don't be slapping me with any lawsuits.


	3. Useless Answers

Chapter Two: Useless Answers

                The question plagued Yugi for the rest of the afternoon.  Long into the night, he lay awake thinking about what might have happened to Jounouchi.  Could he simply have gone off to sulk and left his cards behind, since he could not be good at cards or hold his own in a fight?  Could his attacker have taken him somewhere?  The endless possibilities danced through Yugi's mind long past midnight.  Each of Jounouchi's potential fates spawned a new prospect, until Yugi could have screamed for frustration.  Finally, desperate, he called Honda on the phone.

                "Have you heard from Jounouchi, Honda-kun?" Yugi asked.  His heart beat faster as Honda yawned.

                "I asked around all evening, but couldn't find a thing…  I even called Mai…" Honda sounded worried and weary.

                "I called Anzu," Yugi said.  "She didn't have a clue.  I even phoned Jounouchi's old man…"   His ear vibrated painfully at the memory of the drunkard's shouting.

                "Well, Yugi, I guess I'll call you if I find him…you do the same, okay?  No matter what time it is," Honda suggested.

                "Okay," Yugi said.  With a sigh, he hung up. Just as he did, the nearly transparent form of his yami materialized at his bedside.

                "Aibou," Yami said.  The pharaoh did not need to say anything more.  With that one endearment he conveyed all the concern he had for Jounouchi and for Yugi.

                Yugi frowned.  "Where do you think Jounouchi-kun is, Yami?"

                Yami thought for a moment.  "I don't know where he would be," he said at last.  "But have you noticed how strangely he has been acting lately?"

                Yugi looked at his other self, baffled.  "Well, it is true that he has been playing Duel Monsters a lot recently, even though he loses every time…"  Yugi took Jounouchi's cards from his desk and inspected them carefully.  "I wonder why that is."

                "Perhaps to spend more time with you, aibou."

                "What?  There's no way that can be!"  Yugi smiled thoughtfully.  "It's true that Jounouchi and I are friends because of Duel Monsters and because of circumstance.  But I doubt that he considers me "cool" to hang out with…  Even now…"  Yugi recalled his and Honda's discovery in the alley with a pang.  "Even now I'm not tough and brave…"

                Yami was about to elaborate on his point when the phone rang again.  

Yugi grinned broadly.  Relief shone in his violet eyes before he had even picked up the phone.  "Honda-kun?  Did you find him?" he said, without even bothering with a 'hello.' 

"Hello, Yugi," said the voice on the other line.  "Sorry to disappoint you, but this is not Honda."

"Kaiba-kun?" Yugi gasped. Shock engulfed any disappointment he might have felt.  Hearing the CEO's voice so late at night sent chills down his spine.  It was eerily similar to the time Kaiba had called the game shop to tell Yugi that Sugoroku was with him, fighting a duel from which he had barely returned alive.

"By '_him,' I take it that you mean that dog, Jounouchi?" Kaiba inquired.  He sounded much too smug for even Yugi to refrain from suspicion._

"Yes," Yugi answered dubiously.  "But how do you know about this, Kaiba-kun?" 

"Perhaps you had better ask him yourself, Yugi."  Yugi could almost hear Kaiba smirking into the phone.  "Bark for him like a good dog, Jounouchi."

"Kaiba, you fucker!" Jounouchi spat.  It sounded as if the entire side of his face was swollen.  There was a crash like a body hitting the ground.

"His foul mouth should be more than sufficient proof for you," Kaiba said.

"Kaiba!" Yugi growled.  His hand strayed to the Sen Nen Puzzle.  Yami glared at the phone as if it were Kaiba himself.  "Are you the reason that we can't find Jounouchi?"

Kaiba laughed cruelly.  "Do you even need to ask?"

Suddenly Yugi's voice became deeper and more dangerous than before.  "Why did you do it Kaiba?" Yami snarled.

"Why, purely for you," Kaiba said contemptuously.  

"For me?" 

"As incentive for you to come to Kaiba Corporation for a little duel…"

"You're holding Jounouchi hostage to issue a challenge to me?" Yami looked at Yugi, who exchanged a puzzled glance with him.  Their rival seemed to have lost his wits.

"How astute you are, even at two in the morning," Kaiba chuckled.  "Will I see you tomorrow then?"

"What time?" Yami asked.

"I think…about…seven in the morning…"  Kaiba said.  "I'll see you there.  If you win, Jounouchi will go free.  If not...  Well, we'll settle that in the morning.  I _do_ want you to get a good night's rest, after all."

"There's absolutely no reason to, Kaiba," Yami growled.  "There's no way that you'll ever win against me!"  However, his words were lost on Kaiba, who had already hung up the phone.

Yugi, transparent as his yami was before, sat on his bed.  His cheeks were streaked red with outrage.  "Yami, why is Kaiba doing this?  He is our rival and could issue a challenge whenever he wants…  Why is he hurting Jounouchi now?"

Yami sat beside the shorter boy and frowned.  "I honestly don't know.  Who really knows what goes on inside of Kaiba's head?"

"Yami," Yugi said hesitantly.  "Will _you_ duel Kaiba tomorrow?"

"Why do you ask, aibou?"  Yami looked at his other self, truly surprised.

Yugi stared from the phone to the floor, not meeting his yami's eyes.  "I beat Jounouchi really badly the other night…and now he's been beaten at the thing he does well – er beating, I mean.  If _I_ rescue him…"

Yami smiled wryly.  "I think I see how it is.  You don't want his self-esteem to get any lower, huh?"

Yugi nodded quickly.

"Sure, okay.  Let's switch back for now…unless Kaiba makes another phone call."

"Okay," Yugi said.  He returned to his own body, feeling all the more how helpless he was.  The feeling lingered with him hours after his other self retreated to his soul room for the night.  _I wonder if I would even have any friends if it weren't for my other self, Yugi thought.  The prospect filled him with loneliness and a sense of inadequacy.  Finally he drifted off to sleep, a dreamless slumber as black as his own fear and Kaiba's deception. _


	4. Conditions of the Duel

Chapter Three Conditions of the Duel

One by one, the sun poked its fingers through Yugi's window.  Dawn had shed its fearsome spotlight over Domino City and centered it right into Mutou Yugi's eyes.  "BRRRRIIING!" shrilled his alarm clock.  Yugi groaned and switched it off.  Then he lay back in bed, trying to remember.  _I went to bed late last night…I was talking to Honda about Jounouchi…and then Kaiba called…and-! _

Yugi took another look at the clock.  Its glowing green numerals read 6:30.  Though he wouldn't even be the one dueling Kaiba, he still felt a pang of apprehension.  _Are you ready, Yami? he wondered._

Yami materialized beside him just as he had completed the thought.  _I'm all set, aibou._

Yugi threw on his school uniform and left the house.  Though others might have found the golden light's beauty soothing, Yugi kept thinking of duels he had seen on television in which two gentlemen chose their weapons – usually guns, which glinted harshly in the sunlight - , walked ten paces, turned around, and shot one another.  Ridiculous, he knew.  The knowledge did not ease the queasiness in his stomach, however.

_Take it easy, aibou, Yami advised him.  ___

Yugi shuddered.  It felt as if a legion of Kuribo were spinning around and around in his stomach.  He jammed his hands into his pockets.  Beneath his fingers he felt the comforting weight of his deck.  He drew it out and began flipping through the cards.  Dark Magician, Monster Reborn, magic cards, trap cards – they were all there.  But he could feel something else still weighing down his other pocket.  _What's this? He reached into the pocket and tugged. _

_Jounouchi's deck, Yami said._

Yugi gasped.  _How did that get in there?  I remember putting it back on my desk!_

_The heart of the cards works in mysterious ways, Yami reminded him.  _Maybe we should combine Jounouchi's deck and yours.__

_Good idea, Yugi thought, though his heart wasn't in it.  __Why don't you do it?  I'm still pretty tired.  I think maybe I'll take a nap before you and Kaiba start your duel._

Just like that, Yugi switched with his other self.  Yami looked at the Sen Nen Puzzle with a mixture of fondness and bafflement.  Then he put the two decks together and shuffled a few times.  He decided he would leave it up to the cards this time.  They knew better than even he how they could best work together.  When he finished constructing the new deck, he continued on to Kaiba Corporation.

The prohibitively tall glass building loomed before him; its summit glinted, knife-like in the sun.   Yami swallowed hard.  He did not want to hesitate now that he was so close to Kaiba's ground.  Yet he was afraid for his aibou.  Yami's hikari was young and innocent yet to the ways of men.  Yami, on the other hand, had been a monarch of a prosperous empire.  He knew well the manifestations of desire in men, every last one from greed to lust.  While Jounouchi had endured the duels with Yugi – what better way could one depict those games, all of which he had lost – Yami had sensed a powerful yearning from him.  This need materialized in less extreme ways than Jounouchi subjecting himself to endless loss in Duel Monsters.  It was in the way that his eyes lingered on Yugi all through the game, in the almost tender way he rough-housed with him, in the way he spoke Yugi's name.    Yet Jounouchi was powerful, almost a man.  For a time, he might love Yugi with honor…  But Yami also knew the danger this posed to his aibou…the danger of his being used, or even abused.  Though Jounouchi was a good friend, what kind of lover would he be?  Yami did not want his hikari to be harmed, for Yami hoped, more than anything, for Yugi to uncover his true potential and feel whole, even without the magic of the Sen Nen puzzle.  He felt closer to Yugi than he had to any other person, and thus, he knew this concern had troubled Yugi almost since they had been aware of one another.  He had the feeling that Yugi sensed Jounouchi's feelings, if only subconsciously.  Although Yami would have pondered Jounouchi's apparent feelings for his hikari until the sun fell again, Jounouchi was his charge to rescue.

A man with a god-like torso led Yami into the building.  They walked in silence to the elevator, where the guard left him.  Kaiba was waiting for him inside.  Yami's skin crawled when he saw him.  Greed emitted from Kaiba like light from a sparkling diamond.  However, the most unsettling part of the entire situation was how none of Kaiba's smugness and greed seemed to fit the situation.

"Yugi," Kaiba greeted him.  "How wonderful of you to come."

Terse and more alert than ever before, Yami only nodded curtly.  "You _will give Jounouchi back if I win, right?"  Kaiba's harsh laughter made Yami's blood run cold._

"Do relax, Yugi," Kaiba, still laughing, directed him.  "_If you win, I will return that loser to you.  If I win, however…"  Kaiba's eyes glinted like ice; the greed trapped within formed a bottomless, terrifying vortex of chaotic proportions and skewed logic.  "If I win, then, Yugi…  You will be my slave!"_

{*******************************************************************************************************}

Ladies, gentlemen, and others:  Thank you for your reviews, especially Kyra Windwood.  I have taken your advice.  You will be pleased to note that I now accept unsigned reviews.

I am putting the card names in English…*ugh*  If I miss any of them in this chapter and forthcoming chapters, please feel free to yell at me (just not too loudly…)  I will change the card names in my previous chapters later.

I am going on vacation for two weeks, so once I leave there will be no updates until my return (mid June).  Please forgive me.  On my vacation I plan to flesh out the meat of the story and provide a decent conclusion upon my return.  Before I go, I hope to edit what I have written and post it.  (Last ditch attempt to keep my readers…heh heh.)

I have a little note to make regarding Kaiba's dueling motivation.  His connotation of "slave" is sexual.  However, his desire for "Yugi" is not loving or romantic.  It is sheer lust.  Kaiba is an unfeeling character who I believe has a capacity for such non-feelings.  I chose not to write this into directly the story, as I hope to convey the point through Kaiba's words and deeds.  I ask that in your reviews, if you happen to remember, you tell me whether I was able to convey this important point.   However, I hope to do so elegantly, which means that this fic is on a psychological level versus a physical one.  In other words, explicit rape and sex are unlikely to transpire here.  If my exploration of character psyche becomes too disturbing for the current rating, however, please tell me. 


	5. The Duel Part I

Chapter Four: The Duel Part I

                Yami gasped and backed away from Kaiba.  _So now I know why Kaiba took Jounouchi hostage.  He knew I would never agree to this!  But now he has me trapped!  Even the thought of being a slave revolted him.  Slaves were half men whose lives were dictated by overseers.  They were not wholly human in that they could not think for themselves.  Worst of all, they were completely at the mercy of their master…whatever he chose to do.  _

                The first flicker of doubt crossed Yami's mind. That spark of uncertainty had barely died when Yami remembered to worry about his other self.  He had not blocked Yugi from his mind when Kaiba had set the conditions of the duel.  Yami felt fairly certain that Yugi would be more prone to doing something rash now that the stakes of the battle had climbed so high.  Though it pained him to do it, Yami summoned the barrier that would imprison his hikari in their soul rooms.  Additionally, once the barricade was in place, no exchange of thoughts could take place between them.  Yugi would be furious with him.  Nonetheless, Yami did not want for his other self to be involved in this battle.

                Yami gritted his teeth.  "Very well, Kaiba.  I agree to the terms of this battle."

                "Excellent," Kaiba said.  His arrogance hinted that he had not doubted Yami's compliance for even a second.

                The shiny elevator doors shut with a swish.  Yami and Kaiba remained silent until the elevator stopped.  They had reached the tip top of the Kaiba Corporation building.  Kaiba crossed a dim hallway that ended in a dueling arena.  

Yami paused in the entryway, remembering the last time he had fought in this field for the honor of his hikari's grandfather.  

"This time _I will win," Kaiba interjected, as if he could read Yami's thoughts._

Yami mounted the blue platform.  It rose with a low hum to the dueling field.  Yami shuffled his deck and set it at his side.  Meanwhile, Kaiba appeared on the other side of the field.  Yami watched him cautiously.  Surely Kaiba had some cunning in mind; otherwise he would not have subjected himself to inevitable defeat.  But what trickery could he possibly have conceived of?  Kaiba, though inferior to Yami, was a cunning strategist, and a dangerous opponent.  

"Are you ready, Yugi?" Kaiba yelled from across the field.

Yami nodded and drew the first of his cards.

{***}

                Trapped in his soul room with no way to speak to his yami, Yugi could have screamed for frustration, not that there was anyone who would hear him.  _Yami!  Answer me! _he called until his own voice reverberated through his mind.  When he listened in vain for his yami's reply, all he could hear, no matter how hard he strained, was a dull hum that sounded suspiciously like the awkward silence of a conversation.

                _Why did you do this to me, Yami? Yugi whispered, more subdued this time.  He had overheard the conversation between Kaiba and his other self only long enough to hear that if his yami lost, he would be Kaiba's slave.  Helpless, cut off from the corporeal realm, Yugi fell to his knees.  Thousands of thoughts, some relevant, most rubbish, swirled through his head.  One stood out from the others.  _Did you think I would hinder you?  _Yugi knew that he had asked his other self to save Jounouchi, but he had never meant that in the process, his yami would shutter him away in the catacombs that comprised their souls.  __I could have helped you!  Yugi looked around at his soul room, filled with his innocent games, the opposites to the games his yami played.  But even innocence was of no help now, nor was speculation.  Guile, daring, and confidence were necessary to win this duel, craftiness to overcome Kaiba's spite and malice.  These things, Yugi knew his Yami possessed in abundance.  However, innocence and shrewdness worked better together.  Time had proven the fact many, many times before.  Yugi remembered all too well another duel against Kaiba in which he and his yami had been at odds…the duel they had lost._

                Determined to avert disaster, Yugi tried the door to his soul room again.  The lock remained tight.  His heart beat a little faster.  _This is my room, he thought.  _I should be able to come and go as I please!   _Anger flashed through him, banishing his former torpor.  He began to beat at the door with both fists.  Before long his knuckles shone red and raw.  The door, however, had not budged.  Yugi sank to the floor and buried his head in his hands._

{***}

                In the brief time that Yugi had discovered that the door to his soul room was locked, Kaiba and Yami's duel had commenced.  A monitor above the duelists flashed their names and allotted them each 4000 life points.

                "The Beaver Warrior?" Kaiba scoffed as his Battle Ox demolished Yami's defending monster.  "Surely your deck is more powerful than that."    

                Yami treated Kaiba to a ferocious glare that could have frozen flame.  "I have trust in this deck!"

At first Kaiba looked worried.  Then the Mystical Elf materialized on the field, kneeling in defense mode.

Kaiba gritted his teeth and drew his card.  He scanned it and said, "Pass."

"Now who needs more power in his deck?" Yami taunted.  

"So you say," Kaiba retaliated.  "We'll see if a night in chains changes your mind!"

Revolted, Yami clenched his teeth.  He closed his eyes and drew from his and Jounouchi's combined deck.  He could almost feel the card tingling in his hand.  A smirk crept onto his face as the Flame Swordsman appeared on the field in place of the Mystical Elf.  "I wouldn't declare victory this soon, Kaiba."

"Is that a card from that loser's deck?" Kaiba laughed.

"It is," Yami proclaimed.  "Though my friend is no loser!"  He waved for the Flame Swordsman to attack the Battle Ox.  The beast exploded in a blast of flame.  

Kaiba's life points sank to 3900.  However, Kaiba did not seem the least bit disturbed.  In fact he seemed to be enjoying the game even more now that Yami was fighting back.  As he drew his card for the turn, a leer snaked across his face.  "Yugi, even your feeble efforts to tap into the heart of the cards are futile!"

Yami watched with mingled anticipation and dread as Kaiba laid his cards.

{********************************************************************************************************}

Author's notes:  Thank you everyone for your reviews and support.  J  Your appreciation has made writing this fic that much more enjoyable for me

This battle was a real pain to write.  I have taken the liberty of using Yugioh television show battle logistics.  In other words, players summon enormous creatures with ridiculously high stats, and strategy (which I simply cannot appreciate or enjoy) is at an all-time low.  Meanwhile, as Yugi/Yami cooks up a miracle, plot development (usually character exploration) goes.  But that's okay!  They do it on the show all the time!  Furthermore, in Shounen Jump, Kazuki Takahashi, the author of Yugioh, even says that the psychological aspect of the games he writes is more important than the strategic one.  I agree with him whole-heartedly.


	6. The Duel Part II

Chapter Five: The Duel Part II 

                Yugi carefully bent the wire that circled his bracelet into a hook shape.  _Lucky my soul room has a keyhole, _he thought.  After all, in his yami's room the stone slabs would open only at Yami's command so far as he knew.  It did not occur to Yugi what would happen once he escaped his own soul room.  He wondered, however, if he might breach the gap in their communications by being in the hallway, or better yet, in the convoluted maze that comprised his yami's soul.  However, jimmying the lock to his own room was proving to be an engaging business.  Yugi hunched over, intent on his task.  Finally the lock gave with a click.  The door popped open.  Light streamed into the gloomy hall that separated the two rooms.  Yugi smiled and pocketed the wire.  He ventured into the dusty darkness, feeling no apprehension, only urgency, despite the incredibly sinister appearance of his yami's doorstep and the chamber that lay beyond.  

{***}

Kaiba's card materialized on the field in a swirl of vibrant light.  Yami watched in dread.  However, the card remained facedown.  No hellacious fiend rose to attack.  Yami did not dare to set the Flame Swordsman on the offensive.  He was certain that the other cards that Kaiba had set were trap cards.  His inactivity pleased Kaiba very much.

                "Well, Yugi," Kaiba said.  "You have fallen into my trap!"

                Yami swallowed hard.  Kaiba turned over the card he had placed face-down and one of the cards which Yugi had thought to be trap cards.  

                "Lord of D and the Flute of Summoning Dragon?"  Yami's face drained of color. 

                "When these cards appear in conjunction, I can special summon two dragon type monsters!"  Kaiba spread his arms wide and shouted, "Come forth!  My loyal servant!  Blue Eyes White Dragon!"  In a blast of silver, the two dragons took form.  They towered over Yami.  Their eyes were reflections of Kaiba, filled with malice and bloodlust.  "Neutron Blast!" Kaiba yelled.

                Flame Swordsman dissolved.  Yami gasped as the second dragon drew in the breath that would blast his life points to oblivion.  It seemed that he stood in the midst of the light of eternity as his life points plummeted from 4000 to 1000 in one attack.

                "You better have a good strategy in mind," Kaiba sneered.  "Next turn you'll face the Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon!"

                Yami's face turned chalk-white as Kaiba held up the Polymerization card.  _Please hear me, heart of the cards, _he pleaded with all his heart.  _I need you!  Aibou needs you!  Jounouchi needs you!  Hear our call and answer!  _He took the top card from his deck.  On the outside he was cool, collected, composed, even dispassionate about a loss that would result in bondage.  Inside of him, however raged a battle between faith and doubt in the cards.  Somehow he brought himself to look at it.

                "Are you going to take all day?" Kaiba yelled at him.  "Should I call a servant to bring your chains?"

                "Kaiba," Yami shouted back.  "You will never know victory until you know the heart of the cards!  Card destruction!"

                Kaiba threw his head back and laughed.  "Indeed, my greatest rival, you have won this battle."  His gaze lingered on the wasted Polymerization that he sent to the graveyard.  "But," Kaiba warned, "this is only the beginning."

                Yami, meanwhile, restored the cards of his hand.  "I dispatch Lord of D with Fissure and play one monster face down!"

                Kaiba cursed.  

                "And now," Yami added, "I play Swords of Revealing Light to immobilize your monsters for three turns!"  

                Beginning to look worried, Kaiba drew a card.  Yami's turn came again, but he only drew and placed a monster in the facedown defense position.  Again Kaiba drew, and once more, Yami placed another monster facedown on the field.  

Kaiba smirked.  "Wasted your swords of revealing light, eh?"

"I never waste cards," Yami proclaimed, laying a fissure magic card for his third turn.  A chasm swallowed Kaiba's left Blue Eyes White Dragon.  

 "I now tribute to summon the Dark Magician and the Dark Magician Girl!" Yami's facedown cards vanished. 

Kaiba smirked as the Black Magician Girl's attack power increased by 300 points.  "Even now, Yugi, you haven't enough power to save yourself!  And very soon now, the Swords of Revealing Light will lose their effects!"  

"Watch closely, Kaiba!  The cards resonate with the power of Jounouchi's and my friendship!"  He added the Time Wizard to the battlefield.   

For a moment Kaiba just stared at the Time Wizard, not realizing Yami's strategy.  Suddenly comprehension opened his eyes wide.  "No!" he gasped.  "No!"

"Time Roulette!" Yami called out.  As the needle spun around and around, passing over skulls of ruin and crowns of triumph, Kaiba and Yami looked on, hardly even blinking.  Finally the marker began to slow.  It passed over the double skulls, losing speed all the while.  The topmost crown too, it crawled over, slowing even more over the next two skulls.  It ground to a stop at the bottommost crown.

Time Wizard raised his wand and shouted "Time Magic!"  Darkness emitted from the rod to shroud the entire arena in gloom.  Suddenly the Black Magician's eyes shone crystal blue in the darkness.  A silver aura enveloped Black Magician Girl.  Still the darkness remained.  

Kaiba gaped at the transformation Yami's trump pair had undergone.  "Impossible!" he whispered, awe-struck.  "Such power!"

"When a thousand years pass, Dark Magician becomes the Dark Sage."  Yami's voice rang out, princely and harsh.  It was a wonder that Kaiba did not tremble before his wrath.  "Dark Magician Girl undergoes a similar transformation that endows her with the might of a Sorceress, with 3000 attack power.  However, because she and her master are together, one more change takes place.  The Sorceress becomes the incredible Sorceresstina!"   The blue-robed Sorceress raised her hands high and lifted her head.  Her hood fell away, and her long golden hair streamed down her back.  Upon her brow glinted a single blue jewel.  Though she had discarded her traditional armor, power radiated from her fragile body.  She closed her eyes and whispered a spell.  The echoes filled the entire dueling hall.  Her staff, exquisite rose-colored crystal streaked with blue materialized into her hand.

Kaiba groaned as the former Dark Magician Girl's attack power jumped to 4000.  Yami, meanwhile, flipped through his deck for a magic card.  Finding it, he added it to his hand.  "The Dark Sage's power lets his user draw one magic card from his deck every turn.  Also, when paired with the Sorceresstina, she will gain 200 attack points at the beginning of my turn.  As monsters summoned by tribute cannot attack during the turn that they are summoned, my turn ends here."

"Idiocy!" Kaiba muttered.  "Cards are power!  Power!  There is no heart in them at all!"  He placed one monster card in the facedown defense position.    Then the blue-eyed man began to laugh uncontrollably.  "Yugi," he barely managed to choke out, "one of the first things you will learn as my slave is that there is no heart of the cards!"  Savoring Yami's venomous glare, Kaiba set one card – Yami could not discern whether it was a magic card or a trap card - face-down, flipped over the Magician of Faith, and restored Monster Reborn to his hand.

{***}

                Yugi, after many unsuccessful attempts to call to his yami from the hallway that separated their soul rooms, finally decided to give up.  _Gomen ne, Yami.  I tried to call you from the hallway.  _Now he had no other alternative but to venture into his yami's soul room itself.  However, the door to the room was closed.  Yugi looked back at the enormous eye that stared at him from the impenetrable stone.  _There must be a way in, _he reasoned.  _But how?  He first tugged at the door, to no avail.  It was almost like it was a part of the wall itself.  Then Yugi gently traced the outline of the eye, searching for hidden buttons.  The stone was smooth and cool against his fingers and as unyielding as his yami himself.  Yugi frowned, twisting his fingers in and out of the icy chain that bound the Sen Nen puzzle around his neck.  _

"What could possibly be the secret?" he wondered aloud.  Suddenly the golden puzzle erupted with pure white light.  Its unblinking eye seemed to rove back and forth, seeking something.  Then it locked gazes with the identical eye etched in the door way.  This eye sent forth its own blazing gleam.  Deep within the mysterious heart of the soul room, a scraping issued forth.  The outline of the door wavered like a watery reflection.  Stone grated upon stone, and the door became smoke.  It wafted past Yugi, ghostlike, and vanished.  Cautious, Yugi peeped into the pitch darkness of his yami's soul room.

{***}

                "How can you deny the evidence before you, Kaiba?" Yami demanded.

                Kaiba only set the ankh-marked card.  "Return, Blue Eyes!"  The white dragon towered over all three mages, godlike and terrible.  It seemed that its triumphant roar would split Yami's head in two.  "Well, Yugi," Kaiba hissed.  "It is your turn."

                Yugi drew his card without speaking.  "Kaiba, this game is mine!  Sorceresstina and Sage – attack Kaiba's Blue Eyes!"  The Sage and the Sorceresstina crossed their wands and pointed them at the dragon.  Kaiba narrowed his eyes as magical energy exploded from Yugi's side of the field.  Instead of annihilating Kaiba's dragon, however, the magic smashed against a barrier.  The Sage and Sorceresstina gasped as their own power showered over them and disintegrated the both of them, as well as the Time Wizard.

                "They have fallen to the Sacred Fire of Mirror Force," Kaiba said ominously.  "Now what will you do, Yugi?"

                Yami smashed Monster Reborn onto the table.  "Before this game ends, Kaiba, you will see that the cards hold more than mere power.  I revive the Sorceress."  The Sorceress appeared on the field amidst the smoldering ruin that the sacred fire had left.  She threw back her blue hood and summoned her wand, which was of a similar make to her staff.  "Attack the Blue Eyes White Dragon!" Yami commanded her.

                Kaiba blanched as his dragon's screams rang through the hall.  Though the revived mage had annihilated his Blue Eyes, it almost seemed that the dragon's essence had rematerialized in the young man's flinty blue eyes.  They shone with unnatural blue flame, flickering at every movement of Kaiba's adversary.  Kaiba was about to draw his card when he paused.  "Yugi," he said, his tone confidential.  "It appears that you have the upper hand in this duel..."  He snapped his fingers.  A guard who had been hidden nearby walked to Kaiba's side.  

Yami stepped backwards as if he anticipated a conflict.  He knew perfectly well that from a strategic standpoint Kaiba still had a perfectly good chance to win, and Kaiba wasn't the type to forfeit, either.  

"Be at ease, Yugi.  Our match will continue fairly.  You have my word of that," Kaiba promised.  Yami frowned with distrust at Kaiba's rather oily oath.  "However, I figure that if you are to win this duel, your friend might as well watch your victory."

                The guard now returned, strong-arming Jounouchi to the site of the duel.  "Kaiba!  Teme!" Jounouchi spat.  He blushed hotly when he saw Yami on the other side of the field.  "Yugi…  You came to rescue me?"

                Yami nodded.  "Aibou wouldn't have it any other way."

                Though it did not seem possible, the blush in Jounouchi's cheeks deepened from red to scarlet.  At the sight of this, the guard clouted Jounouchi across the face.  The blonde youth fell to the floor without even a semblance of his old reflexes.  Rather than fight the blows aimed at him, he simply dodged them feebly.

                "What are you doing that for?" Yami demanded, outraged.  "That just isn't necessary, Kaiba!"

                "This loser has the arrogance to express what only I should be able to!"  Kaiba's cold clipped tones belied the passion of his eyes.

                Yami's heart plunged into a chasm beyond despair.  All of which he had suspected Jounouchi–desiring his aibou – was true.  Worst of all, the matter had escalated into rivalry between two powerful men – Jounouchi _and Kaiba.  Yami wondered wryly for whom Kaiba actually lusted, the darkness or the light._

                "Deny what you have said these past nights, and I might forgive you," Kaiba said to Jounouchi.

                Jounouchi only spat to one side.  "Feh.  I will never deny it, Kaiba!  Do you know why?  I don't think that you're good enough for him!"

                Kaiba's sallow face went livid.

                "Yugi," Jounouchi said as tenderly as he could with his injuries, "I am in love with you."

{***********************************************************************************************************************}

Gracious!  This chapter was even more difficult to write than chapter four, even with the Sorceresstina to help out.  (Hey, she's a device, but a logical one.  If the master (Dark Magician) can transform into the Dark Sage after a thousand years, then the apprentice (Dark Magician Girl) should have a similar ability, agreed?)  Keeping track of Kaiba and Yami's dueling stats sure is a pain!  Nonetheless, if Sorceress and Sorceresstina were real cards, I bet that you could actually play a duel like this one…  If you play the card game, please overlook the semantics such as "You can only play this card when…" or "Technically this is special summoning so…"  You know what I mean, right?  That technical stuff that makes the card game…strategic instead of psychological.  Psychology's a great course…mighty tasty.  Strategy…ugh…sickening.  Sorry, I'm rambling.  I guess you get the point.

I hope I got all the English attacks right…I haven't watched the English version of Yugioh in forever…  Anyways, be sure to tell me if I missed something.  Just remember that I'm not around to read my mail, so please don't be offended/confused/etc. if I don't make the switch right away.

Thank you everyone for reading my work!  Hope to see you at chapter 6!


	7. The Duel Part III

Chapter Six: The Duel Part III

                "Yami!" Yugi called from the dismal labyrinth of dark rooms that ringed the chamber that lodged his yami's soul.  No good.  Even now, in the gloom of the maze, he could not establish contact.  Yugi felt frustration welling up inside of him.  Yami was his other self.  They were two souls in one body, bound by the most powerful friendship conceivable.  They had no secrets from one another until now that is.  A sob built up in Yugi's chest.  Determined to be strong, he squelched it.  However he could not stop the tears.  They rained down his cheeks, soundless as they fell to dust and darkness.  Yugi felt the anguish building to a terrible crescendo inside of him.  "Yami!" he screamed in agony.  The cry cut through the stones of the pharaoh's soul, sliced through time and dimension, cut through the barrier that blocked the light from the dark.  And Yugi knew that his other self had heard him.

"Aibou?" that deep voice, so multifaceted, so kind to friends and harsh to enemies, a voice of both darkness and justice, the voice that commanded a glorious empire broke through the darkness.  The braziers that lined the walls flared with ghostly silver flames.  Yugi wiped at his eyes.  "How did you break through the block?" Yami questioned.

"Why did you lock me away?" Yugi challenged him.  Perhaps it was because he was in his yami's soul room, but Yugi could feel his other self's frustration just as he felt the tears on his cheeks.

"Please forgive me, aibou," Yami said.  If Yugi listened really hard, he could hear other voices in the room with his yami.

"How is the duel going?  Have you rescued Jounouchi yet?" Yugi fought to keep the link from sealing shut again.  The only way he could think of to do it was to fill it with endless prattle.  "Are you okay?  Do you need me to take over for you?"

"Be silent!" Yami snarled when his hikari paused to take a breath.  The connection between them snapped.  Like a sea of dying stars, the torches winked out.  The impact in Yugi's mind was like a physical blow.  He reeled backwards, moaning in pain.  His head sang as if a sword were whistling just behind his ears.  The old nothingness returned, no matter how Yugi stretched his mind, straining to reach his yami.  At last the effort overcame him.  He sank again to the floor.  Terror jolted his every nerve.  He knew something was terribly wrong in his yami's duel.  Why else would his other self behave as he just had?  

Helplessness and frustration filled his mind with a roar, happy to evict the emptiness for a time.  The force of the two destructive emotions immobilized Yugi.  For a time he remained motionless in the dark, another forgotten shadow occupying the pharaoh's soul.  Then the desperate voice of reason permeated the gloom of Yugi's own heart.  Though he could do nothing, interred in this labyrinth as he was, he could at least, continue to try to contact his yami.  It was a foolish notion and yet a wise one.  If united with his yami, Yugi knew, for time had thus proven it, there was nothing that they could not do together.  Yet to break through the barrier that his other self had set would be incredibly difficult, maybe even impossible.  Nonetheless, it was the only thing that he could do…

{***}

                Yami wondered how much longer he could endure this duel.  Jounouchi's confession he had expected.  Even though knowing Kaiba's baser instincts filled him with revulsion, he could cope with it.  But having the two gathered in the same place, all but declared as rivals was another matter all together.  Although it would have been helpful to double team Kaiba with Yugi, Yami wasn't sure how his aibou would hold up under the oppressive weight of Kaiba and Jounouchi's desire.  His aibou was innocent and unspoiled.  The revelation that two men loved him, particularly in a time and place where one was frequently ashamed of such tendencies, might well lose them the duel.  _And so, he thought, __I remain alone.  To win alone…or to fail alone.  _

                Kaiba quickly took note of the unsettling effect that he and Jounouchi had made on Yami.  He leered at Yami over the top of his cards and licked his lips suggestively.  Silence fell over the field.  "Yugi, you are finished," Kaiba whispered.  "This game is mine."

                "Masaka?!?" Yami gasped.  

                In his slender, pale hands Kaiba held the card Change of Heart.  

                In the instant that Kaiba played the card, Yami let go of the mental block between him and his hikari.  The Sorceress turned to face Yami.  A wicked grin twisted her visage as she pointed her wand at him.

                Yami's face turned white.  He doubled over his deck, his lips moving in an unheeded plea for a miracle.  

Kaiba's triumphant voice echoed over the Sorceress's incredible wand blast.  "The cards are instruments of power with no heart!"  Yami's life points plummeted to zero.  Dimly he heard Jounouchi shout his name in dismay.  Kaiba had won.

{**********************************************************************************************************}

That's the end of part I, all that I plan on posting for this fic until mid June (my anticipated time of return).  Part II is forthcoming.  I hope you enjoyed the ride so far, but really, as Kaiba says, this is only the beginning…!  Hope I'll see you at Part II!!  Please don't forget me… 


	8. The Forced Switch

Chapter Seven: The Forced Switch 

                Yugi took a shuddering breath and tightened his grip on the Sen Nen Puzzle.  The barrier between him and his yami had fallen away.  However the emotions that screamed through it, like the shrieks of the damned in hell, were enough to make him wish that the blockade were still in place.  The effect was almost crippling.  Failure, helplessness, frustration, all pummeled him like fists, all without mercy, tearing at him.  _Yami!  Is this what he is feeling right now?  _Yugi could barely think through the haze of pain.  He knew one possibility, yet refused to believe it.  _He couldn't__ have lost!  He couldn't__ have!  However, just like the last time Yugi's yami had lost a duel, betrayal, sharp and bitter emanated through the link.  _We did not act together…  _Yugi's heart plummeted to his feet as realization and understanding struck him.  _He lost…  Yami lost!  What's gonna happen to Jounouchi?  _Yugi recalled again the conditions Kaiba had set forth at the beginning of the duel.  ___

_                If you lose, Yugi, you will be my slave!_

_                Slave…  _Yugi could not fathom the meaning of the word.  All he could think of was Yami and Jounouchi.  _It is a penalty that I_ must accept!  I made my other self duel to save Jounouchi, even though it should have been my duel…  From the beginning Jounouchi's pride has injured us all…Yami, me, even Jounouchi himself…  The time has come to swallow that pride.  _Yugi thought back to a time he had stood up to Ushio, a bully who had wanted to be his 'bodyguard.'  _I should have known that friendship and pride do not stand together.   Just like before, I have to take the hits for this, no matter how painful it is.  And somehow, I'll _make_ Kaiba release Jounouchi!  _Though he made the vow boldly in his mind, Yugi had no idea how he would ever fulfill it._

Determination steeled Yugi for what he had decided he must do.  Yami's loss had weakened him.  It would be a simple matter to force a switch.

{***}

                _I failed…aibou and__ Jounouchi!  Yami, consumed with shame, could not bring himself to watch as Kaiba approached, his blue eyes roaring like blue flames.  __Our cards…our friendship…it all failed!   Yet why did it?  _

His cards, scattered in the final blast of magic that had ended his life, offered him neither answer nor comfort.   Dark Magician and Time Wizard stared up at him, their eyes filled with reproach.  Tears filled Yami's eyes, but he could not let them spill over.  He could not let anyone see the confusion in his heart.  Could Kaiba have been right after all?  For a despairing moment he considered it.  Then, with a violent toss of his head, he rejected the idea.  _It cannot be!  The cards have hearts and souls…  They are a part of those who play with them!  _

Yami closed his eyes for a moment to shut out the painful sight before him.  When he opened them again, he could barely see for the half light.  "What?" he gasped.  No longer did he stand in the enormous dueling arena that capped the tower of Kaiba corporation.  Instead he was in a dim chamber filled with stairways and doors leading to uncharted darknesses, the center of a maze lit with pale silver flame.  As always, he knew the room though he rarely recognized into which convoluted part he had emerged.  _My soul room!  He realized with a jolt.  __Yet I did not switch our minds!  All too well Yami recalled being consumed in shame, self pity, and doubt.  That he had let his guard down in those moments was almost unquestionable.  __Then aibou must have…!  Horror sent the former pharaoh to his knees.  Frantically he sought the link between his mind and his aibou's.  Nothingness answered his call, vast and horrendous in the possibilities for which it allowed.  __Why did you do it, aibou?  Why did you rush headlong into the very danger from which I sought to protect you?   "No!" Yami whispered.  His voice died in the silence and with it his hope.   ___

{********************************************************************************************************}

Hello, everyone!  I'm back from vacation as you can see.  Hawaii is lovely this time of year…sigh…  Well, I hope that I'm not talking to an empty 'room'.  More updates to come very soon, I hope.  

PS:  Rutu, it's funny you should mention my winning duels, as I actually lose most of the time.


	9. The Silver Cross

Chapter Eight: The Silver Cross

                Several hours had passed since Kaiba had commanded his servants to lock Yugi in The Room where It would take place.  Several hours now Kaiba had been readying himself.  Following his victory over his greatest rival, it had taken his entire mental prowess not to tremble.  In all respects, he had overcome what he deemed to be the greatest trial in all of his life.  Now he would crush his rival so that he would never stand again.  He, Kaiba Seto would dominate and overpower.  His rival would know powerlessness and shame.  Yugi would be brought low before Kaiba, who was now, in all respects, a god.  So much Kaiba thought as he returned to his own chambers.  All his careful planning would be undone if he betrayed himself with trembling fingers, quickened breath, even a droplet of sweat!  For Yugi, though defeated in the duel, was crafty, and as dangerous as a dancing live wire.  He had to do this the same way he had defeated Yugi at Duel Monsters – in a manner that was cold, detached, yet triumphant.  Like a god.  So as the hours had passed, Kaiba had replaced his hot blood, singing with victory, with wine that cooled him.  His skin became as icy as marble.  

He stood before his full-length mirror clad in a dark silk robe open wide at the chest.  After a moment of indecision, Kaiba deftly hooked a silver chain around his neck.  Upon it hung a sizeable cross of the same color.  Its coldness burned against his white skin.  Outfitted in the cross, Kaiba at last felt ready to quench the last of the fire that burned in his rival's soul.  With a passionless smirk, Kaiba turned from the mirror and began the long walk down the shadowy corridors of Kaiba Corporation.  His blood began to sing again the songs of victory.  These feelings he quickly stifled, wishing to be as hard as ice, knowing he would have to be in order to obliterate his opponent finally and forever.  At last he reached The Room.  It was no prison cell, for Kaiba had no wish to take his slave in squalor.  For that reason, The Room was as grand as the rest of Kaiba's ostentatious mansion, if not more so.  Kaiba paused outside the door, his breath sounding shallow in his ears.  

Annoyed with himself, Kaiba pushed the door open.  There was no need to lock it, for Yugi lay, as per orders, his arms tied to two of the four bedposts.  Somehow, his rival had managed to fall asleep in the horrendous position.  Or perhaps he was only pretending.  All of Kaiba's instincts warned him to caution.  Though beaten, Yugi was still sly.  Kaiba shut the door silently, this time turning his key in the lock.  There was no point in having to chase Yugi across the mansion, after all.  He drew closer to the bed, feeling much as a priest offering sacrifice.  His eyes, cold though they were, lingered on Yugi.  In the dim room, shadow muted the many details of sight, yet sharpening the other senses.  Kaiba could make out Yugi's body, sensual even in slumber.  He could smell the leather of Yugi's pants and a sweeter scent, perhaps that of Yugi's hair.  Darkness hung heavy on the sleeping figure, making his slender frame seem even more fragile.

As if the chill of Kaiba's gaze penetrated his slumber, Yugi started awake with a cry.  He thrashed in his bonds, breathing so hard that Kaiba thought that he heard the rapid beating of the younger boy's heart.  Slowly Yugi turned to Kaiba and a moan escaped him.

"Yugi."  Kaiba lit a single candle that stood on the bedside table.  It flared to life, illuminating the pyramid that Yugi always wore around his neck, now hanging from the closet doorknobs.  Somehow it seemed fitting that Yugi no longer wore it.  Shadows cowered in the corners of the room.  Kaiba's cross glinted harshly.  Yugi squinted against the glare.  Kaiba came closer, soundless and terrifying, a king amongst the other shadows.  Then as swift as a striking snake, Kaiba took Yugi's chin in his hands.  The boy's face was warm and smooth against his fingers.  Kaiba felt a suspicious wetness against his knuckles but decided to ignore it.  His blood rose, roaring like a giant wave.  Kaiba jerked Yugi's mouth to his own, thrusting his tongue between the boy's teeth.  Yugi's mouth yielded disappointingly.  But more than that, Kaiba tasted tears in Yugi's mouth.  Somehow that did not seem befitting of his greatest rival.  Still Kaiba continued his coarse invasion of Yugi's mouth, soon forgetting the taste.  Suddenly Yugi jerked away, gulping for air.  Kaiba smirked at first, but before long, his characteristic scowl took the cynical smile's place.  Yugi wasn't just gulping for air after the long kiss; he was…  Kaiba was so shocked that he stood up from the mattress as if he had been burned.  

Yugi, his greatest rival, who always had met Kaiba blow for blow, retort for retort, card for card had folded completely with one aggressive kiss.  Sobbing wildly as if his heart would shatter, Yugi turned away from Kaiba.  Kaiba waited for a long time in the darkness until Yugi's cries died into pitiful mewling.  "_Kono yaro," Kaiba hissed.  "I suppose you're a virgin…" he muttered._

In reply, Yugi sniffled loudly.  

A strange feeling came over him.  With much grudging and considerable curiosity, Kaiba lit the other seven candles he had placed in The Room.  To his horror, his greatest rival, the one whom he had hated for years, lay red-eyed, puffy-cheeked, with snot running down his face.  Kaiba turned away in disgust so he could recover his wits.  Finally he turned back to Yugi, a handkerchief in his hand.  Since Yugi's hands were tied, Kaiba wiped the snot off himself.  More and more, Yugi was starting to look like a little kid.  Suddenly Kaiba froze, paying no regard to the dripping cloth.  Always he had kept a particular vision of Yugi in mind.  Lanky-bodied, fierce of eye, deadly at cards and all other games – that was his rival.  This Yugi upon the bed, however, had tender, open eyes.  Though he too sported Yugi's leather garb, complete with its buckles and bracelets, his body was childlike and soft.  Kaiba grimaced.  He seemed to remember this smaller, more vulnerable Yugi from younger days.  However, fierce competition with the more man-like Yugi had eclipsed those old memories.  How there had been two by the name of Yugi, Kaiba could not conceive, nor could he recall how one vanished and the other appeared.  However, he did know one thing.  Kaiba had no desire that the little Yugi be his slave, for he was not the rival whom Kaiba had defeated.  

Yugi blinked at Kaiba, and two tears raced down either side of his face.

Rage built up in Kaiba's body.  He seemed to recall that little Yugi's stronger half emerged when he was under duress.  Slowly Kaiba let the handkerchief fall.  He balled up his fist and turned back to Yugi.  "Yugi…  You aren't the one who I want."

Yugi's eyes widened.  He did not speak for fear.

"You know of whom I speak.  The other Yugi is my rival, not you.  Now tell me.  How did he accomplish this little disappearing act?"

"What are you talking about, Kaiba?  Your wealth has made you completely crazy!  There is one "me" who you called to duel with you, and I am he!"  With each word, Yugi's voice gained in strength.  "I am Yugi, and no one else is!"

Suddenly Kaiba began to doubt himself.  His thoughts began to whirl.  Was it possible that he had made Yugi, a rather pathetic-looking rival, into a taller, more commanding figure?  Was it possible that the "other Yugi" was a mere product of Kaiba's imagination, formed so that he could 'pick on someone his own size?'  Had he fallen in lust with a rival he had almost completely invented?  With a roar of fury, Kaiba whirled on his heel.  He unlocked the door with fumbling fingers.  It swung open.  Kaiba stalked out of The Room and slammed the door behind him.

{************************************************************************************************************************}

Hello again, everyone.  I just wanted to apologize for the possible appearance of identical chapters.  That was a little mistake I may well have made while uploading.  FF.net has been a little ticklish for the past few hours, which irritates me, since it slows my updating time.  I wonder (with a grim sort of amusement) just how many evil twin chapters will be lurking about once the smoke clears from this.


	10. The Passage

Chapter Nine: The Passage

            Jounouchi opened his eyes and shut them again.  This day marked the ninth day he had been Kaiba's captive.  It also was Yugi's sixth day, he reminded himself.  In these dark hours, Yugi seemed a part of a wonderful, yet hopeless dream.  

            Jounouchi slowly lowered himself from his hard pallet to the ground.  Each and every one of his muscles ached from even this simple task.  Innumerable bruises adorned almost every inch of his flesh like strange, misshapen tattoos.  His left eye was swollen shut, and his lips looked puckered, even when they were not.  Every movement came only with the strictest mental rigor.  Though he was the veteran of many a fight, Jounouchi couldn't prevent an occasional gasp of agony.  Blood matted his hair, which had stiffened with sweat, to his face.  Simply breathing seared his ribs like hellfire.  

In addition to his physical injuries, Jounouchi bore at least equal amounts of mental torment.  He always had a daily beating to look forward to, sometimes two, if Kaiba troubled to order it.  Always during the beatings –when Kaiba bothered to attend them – the command was the same, sometimes, hissed, sometimes grunted, usually shouted.  "Deny what you feel for Yugi, and you shall go free!"  Jounouchi had found that the best way to stop the kicking, punching, and slapping was to cut directly to the point and black out.  In his dreams, few in comparison to the hours he swam the dark depths of sleep, Kaiba came up with a more innovative way to torture him, with vile medicines and cruel devices.  Sometimes Jounouchi actually watched for his tormentors and welcomed the familiar pain that they inflicted.  _So long as my dreams don't come true, _he consoled himself just before losing consciousness.  

Once his feet touched the ground, Jounouchi crossed the room to the thick wooden door that sealed him in this tomb of gray bricks.  For the past week, when pain had not occupied his mind, he had wondered exactly where Kaiba had stowed him.  He now concluded that he was in Kaiba's cellar.  Gingerly Jounouchi touched his stomach.  Two days without food didn't help with thinking.  

"Kaiba!  Teme!" he snarled.  That rich bastard surely had a hidden security camera about.  How else would he have known that Jounouchi sometimes uttered Yugi's name while asleep?  "Feed your prisoners, you damned tyrant!"  With that, Jounouchi turned from the door and proceeded to undertake the long walk back to the pallet.  Though moving sent tremors of pain jangling up and down his spine until his head rang from it, his own agony was better than imagining Yugi's fate.  Even now, Jounouchi could not believe that Yugi had lost the duel to Kaiba.  The duel, though he did not want to believe it so, had been fair in that Kaiba had not threatened to plummet to his death if Yugi lost.  At last Jounouchi reached his pallet.  As he did so, the door to his cell banged open.  Jounouchi shuddered and bent in a reflexive huddle.  Heavy footsteps sounded behind him like falling bricks.  Slowly Jounouchi turned around.  Something flew across the room and smashed into the back of his head.  

"Teme!" Jounouchi hissed.

            "Shut up!"  The man's voice was like gravel.  "Or I'll crack your throat!"

            Jounouchi, long accustomed to such threats, examined what had struck him.  It was a plastic dish filled with a brown chunky substance.  The smell was overpowering.  "What is this shit?" Jounouchi demanded.

"Dog food," said the god-like man.  "To silence your yapping.  Eat it, and be grateful, dog!"

Fire leaped along Jounouchi's veins.  Trembling, he clenched both fists but held his tongue.  Laughter echoed in the cellar long after his guard had slammed the door shut behind him.  "Kaiba…" Jounouchi muttered, unable to look away from the bowl of dog food.  "Did he think of this, or am I the butt of the guards' jokes now too?"  Though he was attempting to curb his anger with these useless questions, Jounouchi's wounded pride flared within him.  Truly this was the last straw!  

Pain roared in his head as he stalked to his pallet.  He drew back his fist and brought it forward.  His knuckles crashed into the wall with a sickening thud.  Blood ran down his wrist.  At the same time, the wall rumbled like a long-unused motor that has just been started again.  "Whoa!" Jounouchi gasped, stepping back.  With the crunch of gears upon gears and stone against stone, the section of wall behind his pallet swung slowly backwards.  Jounouchi blinked, disbelieving his very eyes.  He stepped onto his pallet and into the place where once gray bricks marked the boundary of his prison.  Sure enough, it was a tunnel.  Jounouchi smiled broadly for the first time in days.  Then, his worries and fears almost forgotten, he set off down the passage, willing to go wherever it might take him.  

For almost half an hour, the passage sloped upward.  Light reached into the dim halls through tiny cracks in the stone.  Water pooled in lower places on the floor, and fungus filled the still air with the bouquet of neglect.  Several times Jounouchi paused to regain his breath.  Above him and all around him he could hear the sounds of Kaiba's mansion as the people within it went about their lives.  However, inside the passage, it was as if all life had stopped.  Jounouchi thanked his good fortune that he had found a hiding place from the guards.  Before long the emptiness began to intimidate him.  He wondered if eventually this secret way met with another one more frequently used.  It would be completely useless to come all this way to simply be returned to his prison.  He began to walk faster, even though breathing hard made him relive the sensation of huge men burying their boots in his ribs.  

At length, Jounouchi had to stop.  Sweat dripped down his chin and stung his cuts.  He didn't think he could continue much longer at this pace.  He leaned against the wall, trying not to gulp down the stale air too quickly.  The effort was of no use, as his ribs were still agitated.  Drained, the injured boy pressed even more of his weight against the brick.  With a slow grinding sound, the trio of bricks his hand rested against slid inwards.  Jounouchi cursed and scurried out of sight.  However, ghostly silence hung over the room he had opened.  Hope ignited in him.  Perhaps if this was an empty room – the longer the silence became, the more certain he felt – he could make his way into the heart of Kaiba's mansion and make his escape!  Then he could get the police to rescue Yugi.  Jounouchi came out of his hiding place in the shadows and entered the room.  He was just pondering the possibility of whether Kaiba could afford to buy off the police when he heard a groan.  Jounouchi's stomach lurched.  Swiftly he noted what he could of his shadowy surroundings.  He stood in a richly-carpeted room, probably a bedroom of some sort.  The groan he had heard was undeniably one of pain.  The one who had uttered it couldn't possibly do him harm.  Hoping fervently that he was not mistaken in this, Jounouchi stole across the room.  His hand was on the doorknob when a glint of gold caught his eye.  He turned slowly, not wanting to attract any more attention from the room's occupant than he already had.  A thick silver chain was looped around the closet doorknobs.  At the end of the chain hung Yugi's Sen Nen Puzzle.  Jounouchi gasped.  Then the figure on the bed must be-

"Yugi!" he whispered, rushing to his friend's side.

Tears filled Jounouchi's eyes.  He blinked them away, trying valiantly not to sob as a mercy to his ribs.  It didn't work.  Yugi lay upon the bed, his eyes half-lidded.  His arms were bound to the bedposts.  Blood had long ceased to make it to his ghastly white hands.  Tears streaked the boy's face.  When he saw Jounouchi, he attempted to cringe away.  _He's too weak to recognize me! Jounouchi realized.  _

"Yugi, it's me, Jounouchi," he said in a low whisper.  "Listen, fortune is smiling on us today.  I'm going to escape, and you're coming with me!"

Yugi's cracked lips moved ever so slowly.  Jounouchi could see that the very effort pained his friend.  His heart nearly broke when he saw Yugi's smile.  "J…Jounouchi," Yugi finally managed to say.  "I'm…sorry."

"No, don't talk," Jounouchi said.  He made his way behind the bed and began to work on the knots.  As he tugged at them, his hand brushed against Yugi's.  The chill of the smaller boy's fingers unnerved him.  "What did Kaiba _do?" Jounouchi muttered.  "Lock you up here and leave you?"_

Yugi did not answer, not that Jounouchi had really wanted him to.  "There.  One hand free," Jounouchi said, letting the rope fall to the ground.  "One more to go, and then we can be on our way."

Yugi began to weep softly.  Jounouchi's eyes went grim.  _I'll kill Kaiba for this if I get a chance.  If I ever get out of here…  _Jounouchi continued to pick at the tight little bunch of rope, conscious all the while of the tears dripping down his cheeks.  Finally he freed the binding from the bedpost.  

Yugi's arm tumbled and went as limp as that of a dead thing.  Though escape was imminent, he did not seem to care at all anymore.

"Can you sit up?" Jounouchi asked him.  Yugi's listlessness was starting to make him uneasy.

"I can," Yugi said.  He rose as slowly as Jounouchi had from his pallet.  "Jounouchi," he said.  "Will you get the Sen Nen Puzzle for me?"

"Sure, Yugi."  Jounouchi did not think to question Yugi's request.  He took the puzzle from the closet doorknobs and held it out to Yugi.  

Yugi shook his head and pushed it away.  "It's too heavy for me right now.  You wear it."

Jounouchi's eyes widened.  The puzzle was Yugi's greatest treasure!  Why would he relinquish it like it was a burden to him?  Horrendous possibilities filled Jounouchi's mind.  However, he reminded himself, now was not the time to agonize, for they still had yet to escape Kaiba's mansion.

"Can you walk, Yugi?" 

Yugi attempted to stand but promptly fell back onto the bed.  "I guess not," he said.

_I barely can make it walking by myself, _Jounouchi thought.  _But I can't leave Yugi!  Damn!  This is going to be risky!  _"Then get on my back," Jounouchi told Yugi.

"That's okay, Jounouchi," Yugi said, his voice drained.  "Go on without me.  It's better that one of us escape than both of us be caught."  He sniffled, and more tears flooded his eyes.  However, Yugi made no move to wipe them away.  "Besides which…I made Kaiba a promise.  If I lost the duel, I would be his-" Yugi choked.  "Slave."

"That's bullshit!" Jounouchi seethed.  "Kaiba did a really fucked up thing taking me hostage, Yugi!  Any promise you made him should be just as slippery, just as full of crap as he is!  You owe him no oath of honor!  This isn't casual humiliation we're talking' here!  It's two separate crimes: hostage taking and blackmail!"

"We had a duel," Yugi protested stubbornly.

Jounouchi gritted his teeth.  "You're not seeing clearly," he told Yugi.  "Duelist honor is a bunch of crap if the two people don't see eye to eye on what honor means, anyway!"

Yugi shook his head.  "Jounouchi, it's all my fault that you suffered and that Yami suffered.  I don't deserve to be saved."

With those words, the agony in Jounouchi's heart surpassed all the pain he had felt for those past nine days.  For a long time he only looked at Yugi.  Then he made his grim decision.  "Yugi," he said.  "Please forgive me."  Jounouchi drew back his fist and struck Yugi on the back of the head.  Yugi groaned softly, his eyelids fluttering shut.  Jounouchi hefted his friend's deadweight onto his back and placed the Sen Nen Puzzle around his own neck.  Then he slipped over to the door.  None of the voices sounded near enough to be in the hall outside Yugi's prison.  Jounouchi sneaked into the hallway.  His breath escaped him as he looked down the corridor.  It seemed to stretch on forever in both directions, miles upon miles of exquisite, glossy wooden floorboards.  Jounouchi took a deep breath and chose the left path.  Through the many windows streamed vibrant red-gold sunshine.  

Under Yugi's weight, Jounouchi hunched over a little further.  What had happened to him these past few days?  Had Kaiba raped him?  Tortured him?  He could tell from Yugi's gaunt look that Kaiba had been starving him.  Yet the room that served as Yugi's prison had been richly furnished.  Perhaps something else unexpected had happened.  _I'll pay Kaiba back one-hundred times what he's done to us, he promised Yugi.  _

The Sen Nen Puzzle hanging heavy around his neck felt like it would scrape against the floor at any given moment.  Although Jounouchi longed to wipe the sweat off his brow, but both of his hands were holding Yugi up.  Suddenly a voice close by broke the monotony of Jounouchi's march.  Jounouchi's ribs throbbed as his breath quickened.  He bent forward, tipping Yugi into his arms.  Gasping at the pain, the price of his haste, he hid behind a thick drapery.  The voices were coming closer, with footsteps heralding their arrival.  Hoping they would not hear his ragged breathing, praying that Yugi would not awaken and give them both away, Jounouchi froze and waited.


	11. The Dog!

Chapter Ten: The Dog!

            Kaiba sneered at the archives that his computer had displayed on the screen.  Pictures upon pictures of his great rival filled one side of the massive screen.  On the other side were images of Mutou Yugi – pictures taken outside of duels.  The differences between the two sides of the screen were as uncanny as the similarities.  Mutou Yugi's expression was tender and earnest.  He looked the stereotypical pushover, innocent and unwilling to fight back.  His eyes were like young violets, vibrant but easily crushed.  The other Yugi had eyes as hard as rubies.  His entire face seemed chiseled out of rock.  His eyes were too vibrant, too alive, as if he knew more about his opponent than the opponent himself did.  His flame-colored eyes held a deadly fascination for Kaiba.  This, Kaiba realized, was the opponent whom he had wanted to crush.  This man was the one he wanted to bring down forever…  

Kaiba stood from his chair.  The slow hum of the computer lingered in his ears to remind him of what he had seen.  _I'll teach Mutou Yugi to lie to me!  Kaiba thought.  His coattails swirled as he rounded the corner to the hallway.  Suddenly he paused.  Suppose that Yugi was only another pawn of his opponent?  Kaiba's senses reeled.  It was not like him to accredit so much intelligence to an opponent, but what else could have happened?  _I've been tricked, _Kaiba thought.  Rage flickered in him but did not ignite.  That had to be it.  His opponent had surely wished to escape what was coming to him, so he used his other self as a façade.  And it had worked, too…  Kaiba thought with a pang of the pathetic young boy he had almost raped instead of his rightfully-beaten rival.  _The first thing I must do is get my rival to show himself.  But _how__?  Kaiba continued his long walk down the corridor where red sunlight pooled like blood upon the wooden floor.  The young man jammed his hands into the pockets of his coat.  His fingertips brushed his cards.  He smirked.  He would know them anywhere.  __But what's this?  Kaiba paused for a moment and withdrew another set of cards, all well-used, some dog-eared and crinkled.  __The dog's cards…and Yugi's cards…  Kaiba put them back in his pockets and continued on his way to Yugi's room.  Then the inspiration struck him.  __That's it!  _Another duel.  My rival won't be able to resist, surely.  Especially with his precious cards at stake.  _Kaiba began to walk a little faster, the memory of his rival's true face burning in his mind and quickening his blood._

{****}

Jounouchi's every nerve tightened until it seemed one of them must snap.  His predicament was worsening in nightmarish proportions.  He and Yugi had remained behind the curtain for almost five minutes waiting for the voices to pass.  He had not dared to look out of the curtain for fear of attracting attention.  Finally when the voices had faded, he had dared to take a peek outside the drapery.  Kaiba himself had been standing right there staring into space!  Jounouchi's pulse had clicked madly away.  Even if Kaiba did not find him and Yugi behind the drapery, there could be no doubt that he was on his way to Yugi's room.  Jounouchi knew that once Kaiba discovered the empty room, there would be little hope for him or Yugi if the two of them were still on the mansion grounds.  Kaiba's eyes were so distant that Jounouchi peered at him a little longer than was safe.  In that time, he saw Kaiba pull out two decks of cards from his large coat pocket.  The first deck, orderly and pristine, could only have belonged to Kaiba himself.  Jounouchi recognized the other one as the combined deck that Yami had used in his duel against Kaiba.  _That Kaiba!  What's he doing with our cards?  Suddenly an odd premonition filled Jounouchi's mind.  Kaiba was indeed going to Yugi's room with two dueling decks.  That could only mean that Kaiba planned to challenge Yugi again!  Jounouchi's head swam as he ducked back behind the curtain.  Several seconds behind the musty velvet passed, the sun baking his back.  Finally Jounouchi heard the footsteps begin again.  Gradually they grew dim.  The youth finally came out from his hiding place and mopped the sweat from his brow.  His pulse had begun to flutter.  Every other heartbeat, black specks of pain danced across his vision.  Somehow he had to find a way out of this damned mansion.  Gritting his teeth, Jounouchi continued onward._

{****}

            Kaiba paused before the door to Yugi's prison.  _How many days has it been…?  _Kaiba did a mental count and cursed aloud.  He had remembered to bring Yugi food about three days ago.  He had not ordered his servants to bring food to Yugi, since Yugi's very presence here broke many of Domino's laws.  Although the rough men who served as Kaiba's 'bodyguards' were perfectly good for keeping Jounouchi in line, Kaiba had no wish to subject Yugi to their often cruel ministrations.  Kaiba thought for a minute, wondering how he could possibly use a half-starved slave to his advantage.  Then, smirking to himself, Kaiba turned from Yugi's room to the kitchens.

{****}

            Jounouchi froze as he looked at Kaiba's enormous computer screen.  On one side, Yami leered at the doorway.  On the other side, Yugi smiled innocently.  Jounouchi clenched his fist and drew in a sharp breath.  _What kind of monster is __Kaiba? he seethed.  Clearly the dim, windowless computer room wouldn't help them to find a way out.  If Yugi had been strong enough to summon Yami, Jounouchi would have bet that Yami could find a way out using Kaiba's own computer.  As it was, Yugi lay asleep in Jounouchi's arms, though his repose was by no means peaceful.  Jounouchi had no idea how to operate Kaiba's computer, and he figured that attempting it would surely end in disaster.  At the very least, it would waste time.  _

So Jounouchi turned from the computer room to the narrow stairwell.  One led down into a familiar musty murkiness.  Jounouchi was almost certain that the gloom comprised Kaiba's cellar.  That smell, like rusty machinery, so similar to the coppery taste of blood, would remain in his memory long after his wounds healed.  

In the end, Jounouchi decided to follow the stairs up.  Up, and up, and up, as it turned out.  The higher he went, the steeper the stairs became and the slower he had to proceed.  The passage was barely wide enough for Jounouchi alone.  With Yugi in his arms, he risked bashing his elbow at every corner, of which there were many in this strange staircase.  Several times he was forced to stop, muting his desperate gasps of pain.  He begrudged every pause, but as he continued upwards through miles of white plastered walls and midget-sized steps, they became even more necessary.  Movement was aggravating his injuries, and agony was sapping his strength.  Nonetheless, whenever he stopped, Jounouchi forced himself to look at Yugi.  For his sake, if nothing else, he had to keep going.

At last Jounouchi emerged from the stairs into a hallway so wide and so richly-furnished that it almost seemed like a room itself.  However, Jounouchi kept to the cramped shadows of the stairs, not trusting the wide-open space.  A tapping sound, much like the scrape of heels against the hard marble floor sent his heart straight to his mouth.  Slowly, soundlessly, Jounouchi backed into the stairwell again, hating its confines with every ounce of his strength.  Hatred became alertness, and he waited, wide-eyed in the dark.

{****}

            Kaiba returned from the kitchens with a tray laden with food.  He was certain that the food would lure Yugi from obedience to his other self.  _And when that happens, Kaiba thought.  His eyes chilled several degrees.  __First, we shall have a meal together…  And then, I shall finish what I started.  _

His hand was on the doorknob when the beep sounded from his inside coat pocket.  "Dammit," Kaiba swore.  He balanced the tray a little more securely and reached for his cell phone.  "What in the hell do you want?" he snapped.

            "My most humble apologies, Mr. Kaiba," said a voice that sounded like tires scraping across gravel.  Kaiba cringed and checked his caller id.  Sure enough, it was one of his 'bodyguards' on the phone.  "The dog has escaped.  I await your orders, sir.  Shall I turn on the house alarm?"

            Kaiba dropped the tray of food.  It landed with a clatter.  The bottle of red wine shattered, sending a blood-colored pool streaking across the floor.  Fruits rolled down the hall, thudding to a halt as they hit the wall.  "_Do not turn on the alarm!" Kaiba snarled.  "If you do, the entire house will go into a panic, and the police will be up here in five minutes!  Remember what I told you about the nature of this situation."_

            "You could just say that they are intruders, Sir," his bodyguard suggested.

            "No.  That is still not a good plan."  Kaiba thought frantically.  "Turn on the silent alarm.  That will alert every bodyguard on duty that something is amiss.  Then you can call them and fill them in on what's happening.  I don't care if you have to shoot him; the dog mustn't escape to tell the police what has transpired here.  Not until I can put together a good bribe anyways."

            "As you wish, Mr. Kaiba."  Disapproval tinged his words.  The bodyguard hung up with a click.  Kaiba glared at the phone.  "He had _better _not turn on that alarm," Kaiba growled.  "I don't need all hell breaking loose here on top of everything else."  Leaving the fallen tray on the floor, Kaiba opened Yugi's door.  Inside, absolute darkness kept sentinel.  Kaiba pushed the door open wider, noting that the candles had all melted.  He stepped back into the hallway.  He had set a candle on the tray before leaving the kitchen.  Lighting it, Kaiba returned to the inside of the room.  A gasp escaped him as the light cut through the darkness.  Yugi's bed was empty!  The bindings were gone from the bedposts!  Kaiba looked at the closet doorknobs, where he had stashed Yugi's precious puzzle.  It too had vanished.  Kaiba stared at the vacant room for several minutes, his fury building to a crescendo.  At last he spoke two words that dripped with hatred and malice.  "The _dog_!"

{****}

            Incessantly the scraping and scratching continued.  Jounouchi felt as if his head would burst from the endless noise.  He wondered if Mokuba was out there, toying with him.  _Just a few more minutes, Jounouchi reassured himself, looking down at Yugi.  __For his sake…  he reminded himself.  The allotted time passed, and still Jounouchi could hear the strains of scritch, scrape, scratch, tap, tap…  He began to worry that his pain had muddled his head.  Perhaps there was no sound in the hallway at all!  What if he was just crouching in the darkness listening to a noise that only he could hear?  Apathy prevailed over these hideous possibilities.  Jounouchi forgot that he cradled Yugi in his arms, forgot even that he was in Kaiba's mansion.  All he knew was that he wanted to sleep…  His eyelids drooped, and he leaned against the chipped white plaster wall._

            A sudden crash jolted him to wakefulness.  Adrenaline leaped in Jounouchi's veins, live wires conveying simultaneous pain and alertness.  White light exploded in the hallway, illumining every swirl in the marble.  Each window flared like the wrath of a god.  It was then that Jounouchi was able to see the source of the tapping.  Trees, peering into the hallway like eager zoo exhibit visitors, knocked on the glass when it suited their fancy.  Jounouchi heaved a deep, shuddering breath.  When the crash once more died into silence, rain pattered on the side of the house, splashing the windows.  

A crazed idea took hold of Jounouchi.  As swiftly as he could manage, he made his way across the dark hall, following the tap-tapping of the branches.  At last he stood at the window.  The storm howled, striking the land with another bolt of lightning.  The tumult rumbled through Jounouchi's body, sapping his courage little by little.  Jounouchi set Yugi on the floor and jerked the window open.  

An alarm screamed from the bowels of the mansion.  Its shrilling seemed almost demure beside the closer, fiercer storm.  Rain streamed into the hallway.  Already Jounouchi was soaked.  He picked up Yugi again and tightened his grip on him.  Then he swung one leg over the windowsill.  Lightning exploded in the distance.  It was only a matter of time before the chest-constricting boom.  Torrents of rain lashed Jounouchi's face.  Yugi sputtered and coughed but did not awaken.  

Lightning shattered the darkness, shining the light of day upon Kaiba's mansion.  In the sporadic light, Jounouchi was able to see the sickening drop that lay below him.  Nonetheless, he swung his other leg over the sill.  Then he shifted Yugi's full weight to one arm and shoulder.  The tree was close, so close…  There was no way he could miss it, even reaching one-handed.  Jounouchi stretched his arm out, grasping the thick, gnarled branch with all the strength he could muster.  Then he pushed off the windowsill with both feet.  The ground lurched and seemed to open like a hungry mouth as Jounouchi shot over it.  However, Jounouchi landed just where he had expected, in the thick upper branches.  

Leaning against the trunk, Jounouchi heaved a sigh of profound relief.  He had to rest for a minute…he just had to.  He lowered Yugi's slight weight from his shoulder to his other arm.  The thick canopy of leaves above him provided cover from the rain.  However, the lightning flashes were screaming from the sky more frequently than Jounouchi would have liked.  Suddenly the chill of the rain permeated his skin as he remembered the worst place to be during a lightning storm: in the shelter of a tree…

{*********************************************************************************************************}

Sorry for the delay in updating; I've been keeping busy this summer.  I'm glad that this story is still enjoyable.  :)  I must say it's much more fun for me to write now that I'm not double-checking duel moves.


	12. Escape!

Chapter Eleven: Escape!

"God dammit!" Kaiba swore as the alarm began to shrill.  He fumbled in his coat pocket for his cell phone.  He quickly punched in the extension for his 'bodyguards.'  

"Yes, Mr. Kaiba?" asked the gravelly-voiced man.  Static buzzed in the brief pause that followed; the storm had become strong enough to disrupt with the cellular signal transmission.

"I _told you not to turn on the damned alarm!  Who is responsible?  He shall be fired immediately for a breach of orders!"_

"None of us are responsible," the bodyguard replied truthfully.  "Something else set off the alarm in the upstairs hallway.  Did you open a window recently, sir?"

"No…"  Kaiba broke off.  Suddenly his every dueling instinct jarred at his nerves.

"Sir, are you quite all right?"

"Yes," Kaiba said.  His eyes burned with frigid blue fire.  "I know where the dog is.  Send your men to the room where the alarm went off.  "

"What about the police, sir?"

"I will be outside to greet them.  I will tell them that one of you disobeyed orders and tampered with the alarm.  Now hurry and get the dog and my slave back where they belong.  And keep out of sight of the police.  I have no wish to explain to them what the dog and my slave are doing here." 

"Yes sir!"

{****}

            Jounouchi sagged against the tree trunk.  Somehow he had to find the strength and dexterity to climb down from the tree.  He looked across Kaiba's enormous front lawn.  He gauged it to be at least an eighth of a mile to the gate.  At least two-thirds of that distance was composed of sopping wet grass with no cover of any kind.  _Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide…  _Jounouchi could feel his mind spiraling into senselessness.  He hung his head, letting his rain-soaked bangs jab his eyes.  If he waited just a little longer, all of the pain of exertion, all the old injuries he had borne at the hands of Kaiba's men would overwhelm him.  He could be safe in his black sleep, where he felt nothing at all.  Numbly he looked again at Yugi.  The smaller boy's eyes were still closed tightly, his last defense against the cruelty done to him.  Suddenly a fat raindrop that had slipped through a gap in the leaves plopped onto Yugi's nose.  Yugi sneezed and opened his eyes.

            "Jounouchi," he said blearily.  "Where are-"

            Twin lightning bolts broke overhead.  The air hummed with electricity. 

            "Waaah!  Jounouchi!" Yugi cried.  He began to tremble.

            "Hold still, Yugi!" Jounouchi snapped.  "You're going to knock both of us right out of this tree!"

            "Tree?" Yugi whispered.  He looked down with a shudder.  "Jounouchi, what are we going to do?"

            "See over there?"  Jounouchi pointed to Kaiba's wrought-iron gate.  "That's the front gate.  If we can get through there, we'll be free of Kaiba's mansion.  We can follow the road back to Domino.  And don't say you won't come with me, or I'll knock you out again."  Jounouchi's eyes locked with Yugi's in an unwavering stare that clearly communicated, "I _will do it."_

            Though it hardly seemed possible, Yugi's eyes grew wider.  Though he was only holding him, Jounouchi could feel the rapid beating of his friend's heart.  "What if the gate's locked?"  Yugi sounded on the verge of panic.

            "We'll have to climb over it, I guess," Jounouchi replied with much more confidence than he felt.  His arms and ribs ached just thinking about another difficult climb.  "Hang on tight, Yugi.  I'll need both hands to get us out of this tree."  Yugi obediently latched his fingers into Jounouchi's shoulder.  Jounouchi hissed sharply.  _I must be in bad shape if Yugi's grip is hurting me.  _Slowly, with painstaking caution, Jounouchi began his slow descent from the tree.  Most of the branches, luckily, were within easy reach, laid out like a twisted ladder in hell's Wonderland.  

            "Jounouchi," Yugi whispered.  "That lightning looks like it's getting awfully close.  Can't you go down any faster?"

            "Not unless you want to splatter all over the ground," Jounouchi replied.  Yugi was right though.  The sheets of rain had mostly dissipated.  Now the cooler air rang with the hammer thrusts of thunder.  Every time he blinked, the youth could see snaking arcs of lightning on the undersides of his eyelids.  And it sounded as if the lightning was getting closer…

            "There he is!"  From above came the unmistakable shout of Jounouchi's tormentors.  Jounouchi lost his grip on the tree branch and skidded past several branch rungs before he caught himself.  "Hey, boys!  I didn't know that dogs could climb trees!"  Coarse laughter.  Jounouchi's eyes smoldered with rage.  His heart began to bang against his chest, making his breaths shorter and shorter.  "Fuckers!" he hissed. 

            "Jounouchi!" Yugi gasped.  "They'll call Kaiba!  We have to hurry!"

            However the two in the tree had a more urgent danger to deal with.  One of Kaiba's bodyguards swung himself into the tree, as deft as a gorilla.  As he climbed downwards himself at an impossible speed, the tree began to sway back and forth.

Jounouchi began to recklessly lower himself and Yugi towards the ground.  Towards the bottom, the branches of the tree got more slippery.  He began to skid.  Finally at the last five feet, Jounouchi's grip was torn off completely.  Those seconds that comprised the fall were very like the black sleep.  The familiar roar filled his ears.  His eyes bulged out over a vast abyss of nothingness.  And his body registered no sensation at all.  Unaware that he did so, Jounouchi screamed as the ground rushed up to meet him and Yugi.  Astonished shouts from above died in the next onslaught of thunder.  Jounouchi hit the soft dirt with a thud; Yugi landed beside him.  Instinctively Jounouchi jerked to his feet.  Spinning wheels of fire swerved in his lungs as the wind returned to them.  Almost fiercely he pulled Yugi to his own feet.  He was worried that if the smaller boy remained on the ground for too long he would not rise again. "Come on, Yugi," he pleaded. "Just to that gate, and we will have escaped."

To his profound relief, Yugi obeyed him.

They loped across Kaiba's lawn at first, reluctant to leave the cover of the trees.  Finally they reached the point where only grass separated them from the gate.

"Come on, Yugi," Jounouchi screamed.  Looking behind them, he glimpsed the man from the tree.  He, too, had reached the ground and was coming for them.  Jounouchi seized Yugi's hand and began to run faster than he knew he could.  The terror of the hunted.  The ground whipped past like a blur, tall wet grass slapping his ankles.  The Sen Nen Puzzle banged against Jounouchi's chest.  He gripped it with his other hand.  Yugi kept up with him as best he could.  

Just as they reached the gates to freedom, garish white light shone through the bars of the gate.  Disoriented, Yugi and Jounouchi jerked to an ungraceful halt.  With fierce gasps, they battered their lungs with unwelcome air, trying to make sense of the nonsensical.  To what did the light belong?  

At last, through a thickening haze of pain, Jounouchi figured out one part of the puzzle.  Yet…  What was a car doing trying to get into Kaiba's place now?  And at this hour?  Suddenly Jounouchi remembered the alarm he had set off upstairs.  "Oh shit!" Jounouchi swore.  "Get back, Yugi!"  The two of them retreated into darkness as the gates began to swing open.  Suddenly Jounouchi turned and saw Kaiba standing in the front doorway of his grand mansion.  Blood drained from Jounouchi's face.  "This is it, Yugi.  Once I give the signal, we _have to get out of here."_

Yugi did not question Jounouchi; he only nodded.  Behind them, the man from the tree was sprinting at an impossible speed.  Meanwhile, Kaiba had left his doorstep to meet the police.  Jounouchi's breaths came ragged; his body attempted to tell him of pain, but Jounouchi paid it no heed.  The police had almost pulled inside completely.  As their back bumper entered the grounds, the gates were slowly swinging shut.  "Now!" Jounouchi roared, pulling Yugi after him.  The two of them shot through the gap between the two gates, moving so quickly that their lungs drizzled fire into their blood.  Kaiba's shout of dismay rang out in the emptiness as they passed through his gate.  A final thunderbolt boomed in the high heavens.  Then the clouds burst, filling the air anew with dark rain.  Jounouchi and Yugi had made good their escape.

{**********************************************************************************************************}

By no means does this chapter conclude Yugi and Jounouchi's adventures in angst and anguish.  Indeed, you might say that they aren't _nearly_ out of the woods yet…heh, heh, heh.  Stay tuned for the next chapter, if it so pleases you.

Extra thanks to Rutu, for much-needed encouragement.  

I think I've gotten my writing fire back now thanks to this fic and to everyone's encouragement and enjoyment.  A thousand times, arigatou, minna-sama.

One more thing.  Does anyone have a copy of Elaine Pedee's _Final Fantasy III: Conspiracy of the Cult_?  If you do, please send it to Sarsos@aol.com.  I would be eternally grateful. ;)


	13. Severed Ties

Chapter Twelve: Severed Ties

            "Jounouchi, please stop!" Yugi pleaded.  "I can't run anymore!"

            Jounouchi reluctantly slowed to a walk.  To return to Domino from Kaiba's manor of hell, he and Yugi had sprinted through a rainy tunnel of darkness.  It was a profound relief to return to the lights of Domino, even if they were a little smeared-looking in the heavy rain.  However, Jounouchi wanted nothing more than to hurry indoors.  Every time his mind wandered, his ears conjured up false police sirens.  He had no wish to be arrested as the intruder who had set off Kaiba's alarm.  Suddenly Jounouchi noticed how haggard Yugi looked.  Guilt inundated him.  Still, he could not shake the sensation that Kaiba's men or the police would soon be upon them if they strolled in too leisurely of a fashion.  "Sorry, Yugi," Jounouchi apologized, slowing even more.  As he did so, the bunches of nerves in his neck tightened.  "I'm just nervous about being out in the open like this.  I mean, we're walking right next to the street."

            "It'll be okay, Jounouchi," Yugi said.  He paused underneath the awning of a closed restaurant and sighed.  Suddenly Yugi seemed far older, far more tired than he really was.

            "Are you okay, Yugi?" Jounouchi asked.  "What did Kaiba do to you?"

            "He didn't rape me, if that's what you mean," Yugi said, a trace of bitterness in his voice.  "It isn't me he wants.  It's Yami."

            Jounouchi's cheeks burned.  To distract himself, he watched the shining sidewalk pulsating with neon ripples of rain.  "Oh yeah, Yugi."  Jounouchi slid the Sen Nen puzzle off of his neck and dropped it over Yugi's neck.  "I better give this back to you before I forget."

            "Jounouchi!  No!  Stop!" Yugi protested.

            Before Jounouchi could react, the puzzle burst alight like a firecracker.  Jounouchi gasped and scrambled away.  Yugi's face and hands went rigid as the light died down.  "Yugi!  Stop playing around!  Yugi!"  Jounouchi's jaw dropped.  No longer afraid of the puzzle, he clamped both hands on Yugi's shoulders and shook him roughly.  Nothing.  To his dismay, Jounouchi found that Yugi's eyes were fixed into a stare as vacant as a corpse's.  "Dammit!" Jounouchi cursed.  "What have I done?"

{****}

            Yugi blinked furiously to dispel the gloom.  At first he supposed that the lack of food and sudden exertion had exacted its toll from him and if he only willed it, he could awaken again.

            "Aibou."  A frosty tone as brittle as thin ice.

            "Yami?" Yugi whispered to himself.  Suddenly he made the connection.  For whatever reason, Yami had jerked him into the puzzle.

            "Yes.  It is I," Yami replied.  Slowly, from out of the shadows, he approached Yugi.  As he did so, Yugi cringed, remembering another man who had come upon him the same way.  "Are you unhurt?"  Yami did not stop to speak to him.  Rather he continued stalking back and forth across the gloom.

            "Y…yes…"  In that moment, Yugi felt afraid of his other self, afraid as he had never been.

            "He did nothing to you at all?" Yami sounded skeptical.  A hint of rage entered his voice.  "I find that very hard to believe."

            "It's the truth," Yugi protested.  "He…wanted you, Yami.  His…rival."

            Yami laughed harshly.  "Is _that what he told you?"  At last he stopped before Yugi.  Their eyes locked.  "Why did you do it, Yugi?  Why did you lock me inside this puzzle?"  His eyes smoldered.  Before Yugi could reply, Yami interrupted.  "No, don't tell me.  Hear me out, and weigh your response carefully.  I have been worried about you, Aibou.  More worried than a mother willing to die for her child.  I have not slept in nine nights waiting to be released from this puzzle.  Yet it has remained my prison…and my thoughts have remained with you."  As Yami spoke, Yugi could almost feel the torment he had put his yami through emanating through his voice.  "You did a thing of immeasurable stupidity, aibou!  Had I been in your place –"_

            "Kaiba _would have raped you," Yugi interrupted.  "Even you, the King of Games, cannot fight in fetters against an opponent who is intent on crushing you.  Truly the way things are is the best way!"_

            Yami clenched his fists.  "Do you really believe that?  You are more foolish than I thought!  You should never have locked me away!  I am the one who protects you!"

            "There was nothing you could have done differently in my place!" Yugi argued.  A note of bitterness entered his voice.  "I was only seeking to protect you, Yami, just as you did when you blocked me from the duel.  If it was okay for you to do it, then why wasn't it when I attempted it?"

            "It was childish and dangerous!" Yami stormed.  "I protect you from things for a reason, because you are my charge and a good deal too innocent for your own good."

            "Innocent perhaps, but I'm not helpless!" Yugi snapped.  "I'm not a baby to be carried around in a basket…or a puzzle!"

            "Maybe you're not," Yami conceded.  "But, Aibou, what I'm about to do is for your own good."

            Suddenly Yami reached for Yugi.  His fingers passed through Yugi's transparent shoulder, sending jolts of electricity through both of them.  Yugi gasped as he fell backwards.  Yami had forced himself into the corporeal realm.  "Dammit, Yami!"  Trapped inside the puzzle, Yugi began to cry.  "What are you doing?"

            "It's for your own good, Yugi," Yami's voice echoed from every shadow-cloaked corner.

            Yugi, consumed in the flames of his own fury, somehow parted the veil that usually kept him from knowing about his yami's activities.  Horrified, he looked on.

{****}

            Jounouchi touched Yugi's forehead gently.  "Yugi, are you okay?"  Concern filled his weary brown eyes.

            Yugi remained frozen for several heartbeats more.  Jounouchi was withdrawing his touch as a caress when Yugi smacked his hand away.  Jounouchi gasped and clutched at his chest, only half-joking.  "Wow, Yugi!  Don't scare me like- "  He then realized that it was Yami to whom he was speaking.  "That."  Jounouchi's heart began to beat a little faster.  "Really, Yami, I didn't mean…er…"

            Yami crossed his arms and tossed his head proudly.  "That caress wasn't meant for me.  Is that it, Jounouchi?" he asked in a voice barely louder than a whisper.  His eyes were scathing, tearing Jounouchi's head open and analyzing every thought inside.

            "Yeah," Jounouchi said.  Though he would have felt much more comfortable scrutinizing the sidewalk as he had before, he could not break his gaze with Yami's crimson eyes.  It was as if Yami held him in thrall.  Jounouchi fought the urge to squirm.

            "Jounouchi," Yami said.  "We've been 'friends' for some time now, haven't we?"

            "Yeah," Jounouchi agreed quickly.  What was on Yami's mind?  Why had he treated Yugi so roughly before?  They were partners after all!

            "And you and Yugi have been friends for even longer than that," Yami continued.

            Jounouchi wondered if Yami was reacting to his feelings for Yugi.  After what the three of them had endured at Kaiba's hands, he could hardly blame Yami for being cautious.  And, Yugi and Yami did share the same body.  The more he thought about it, the wiser it seemed to clarify himself.  "I had hoped that Yugi and I would become more than friends," Jounouchi confessed.  "But after all that's happened with Kaiba, I suppose that will take some time."

            "Indeed?" Yami replied.  "Jounouchi, since you are being honest, I will be honest as well."  Yami's face was grave, as somber as if were pronouncing Jounouchi's death.  "I want you to stay away from my aibou and me."

            "What?" Jounouchi gasped.  His thoughts whirled, and twinges of pain began to creep into his heart.  _To never tell Yugi how I feel…  To never see him again!_

"I see that you don't agree with me," Yami said.  

            Taken aback, Jounouchi snapped the first words that came into his head.  "Damn right I don't agree with that!  Yami, he might be your aibou, but that doesn't mean that he's made of glass.  You should let him live his life.  Protecting him is one thing, but living his life for him will only make both of you miserable!"

            Yami smirked.  "Well, of course you would say so…considering what _you_ want.  You and Kaiba are more alike than you know."

            "What if Yugi wants what I want?  What then?" Jounouchi retorted.

            Yami looked from Jounouchi to the Sen Nen Puzzle.  "Somehow I doubt that he would.  And I won't give you the chance to ask, either."

            "What?" Jounouchi yelled.  Suddenly the injuries he had endured in Kaiba's basement paled in comparison to the anguish in his heart.  Even Jounouchi's most evil dreams could not compare with the prospect of never seeing Yugi again.  "Yami, I saved his ass from Kaiba!  I'm the reason that both of you are here!  I-"

            "Want payback?" Yami's eyes narrowed dangerously, daring Jounouchi to answer.

            "No!" Jounouchi growled.  "I want Yugi to share my life with me for a while!" 

            Yami arched his eyebrow as if to say "Yeah right!"

"I _do want to do _that_," the blonde rolled his eyes in disgust, "but not before Yugi is good and ready."_

Yami now advanced on Jounouchi with one hand on the Sen Nen Puzzle.  "I don't need you to get home safely," he said.  "If you try to accompany me…"  A third eye glowing with golden fire materialized on Yami's forehead.  "You will look back on your days as Kaiba's dog as happy ones."

Instinctively Jounouchi balled his hands into fists.  Then, slowly, he backed away from Yami.  "_Go," he said, his voice husky.  "I won't stop you, and I for sure as hell won't try to follow you."_

"Good," Yami said with an arrogant nod of approval.  "_Sayonara, Jounouchi."  Then he set off into the blinding sheets of rain.  Jounouchi's last impression of Yami before the curtains fell upon him was the sparkle of the Sen Nen puzzle in the neon lights of the city._

Numbed, Jounouchi hunched over, continuing his study of the sidewalk.  Then, his steps slow and shuffling, he made his way across the street.  Though he knew if he looked up he would see Yami going the opposite way, he did not lift his head.  Instead, he allowed his mind to lapse into his last memories of Yugi.  He remembered holding the boy as he slept, carrying him through endless corridors in Kaiba's mansion.  Now that the danger was not prevalent in his mind, he remembered the porcelain smoothness of Yugi's skin, the gentle beat of his heart…  Remembering reminded him of all he had lost.  On the other side of the street, Jounouchi could take it no longer.  He retreated into the concealing darkness of an alley, barely seeing where he was going.  There in the shadows, the tears drowned memories and pain alike.

{**********************************************************************************************************}

Tropical storm Bill is wrecking hell here!  If I lose my saved work one more time, I'm gonna…::sizzle, sizzle!!::  Okay, enough of this corniness.  Hopefully nothing really bad like a power outage will happen.


	14. Neither Time nor Water

Chapter Thirteen: Neither Time nor Water can Cleanse Memories when the past refuses to die

            Yugi stared out the window at the incessant rain.  It pattered on the roof, endless melancholy prattle.  He sighed and continued to peer into the gloom.  When would the sun break through?  Water rushed down the windowpanes, obscuring all that lay without.  Much in the fashion of the past month, the blur wove together minutes and sometimes entire days.  Though there were times when it seemed eons since the duel at Kaiba's, there were times when it seemed mere minutes.  Since then, Yugi had spent a majority of his time holed up in his room.  The Sen Nen Puzzle he had cast into the darkest corner of his room.  In the rush of police visits and doctor appointments, Sugoroku had not noticed that Yugi had abandoned his greatest treasure, the golden pyramid, to the dust of his room.  When he was not answering questions or wandering that empty plane that existed between waking and sleeping, Yugi relived the last time he had seen Yami.  So fierce and bitter had their argument been that Yugi had torn the puzzle from his neck and heaved it across the room.  Occasionally he glimpsed snatches of the fight in his dreams where he found no rest, no reprieve from the miserable depression that had seized him. 

However, even thrusting Yami out of his life could not bring Jounouchi near him.  Whenever Yugi tried, the blonde pointedly ignored him.  Yugi did not want to drag Anzu and Honda into the affair.  Although he and Jounouchi had escaped Kaiba's mansion, Jounouchi's argument with Yami served to perpetuate memories best forgotten.  Thus Yugi wandered the halls of school, as unnoticed as an invisible ghost.  After school, doctors, psychologists, and police filled his hours.  When he finally did get home, his friends had long since given up calling him.  And after a month straight, even though the 'visits' as Yugi thought of them were becoming scarcer, the calls had almost ceased altogether.  

Even if the phone had rung, Yugi would have left it.  His fight with Yami was still vivid in his mind, even a month after it took place.  And fighting with one's other self, a being closer who shared a bond even stronger than blood, immobilized him with grief.  And so the gloom in his heart unfurled to consume his very being, drawing on its own power and growing thicker and greater with every moment.

_"I won't let you dictate my life for me!"_

_"It was for your own good, Aibou!" Yami retorted.  "You saw how Kaiba acted when refused!"_

_"But that doesn't mean that Jounouchi-"_

_"Doesn't it?  How do you know?"_

_"I watched you tell him everything.  I think that even if I were to refuse him, he would still remain my friend!"_

The shouts still rang in Yugi's head.  The memories were like raindrops falling anew from the sky, yet each drop identical to the last, a horrendous repeating history.  

_"It was for your own good that I took control when you lost the duel!"_

_"That's ridiculous!" Yami scoffed._

_"That makes you a hypocrite.  'My own good' indeed!  Don't forget that you interred me inside the Sen Nen Puzzle first!"_

The battle had raged inside the puzzle, always the same message echoing off the walls spoken with different words.  Finally Yugi had lost control.

_"I refuse to be ruled by you!  You may be my other self, but my life is my own!  You're making decisions that aren't yours to make!  Not only that, but you're refusing to even attempt to see what I'm telling you! And now you've personally dumped my best friend for me.  I never want to see you again!"  _With that, Yugi had flung himself out of the puzzle.  Then before Yami could do anything about it, he had ripped the puzzle from around his neck and thrown it across the room.  For several minutes he stared at the fallen puzzle, not realizing what he had done.  When the realization finally sank in, Yugi fell onto his bed sobbing.  Never had he felt so completely alone.

Such was the drama that played over and over again before his eyes whenever his mind was not otherwise occupied.  By this time, Yugi could have repeated each argument word for word and replicated each furious gesture he and Yami had made.  So striking was his mind's faithful portrayal of the argument that each time he recalled it, his limbs began to tremble.

Suddenly the phone shrilled.  Unblinking, Yugi reached for it.  "Hello?" he said in a flat voice.

"Hello, Yugi."  It was a voice he had not heard for an entire month.

Yugi dropped the phone.  It fell to the floor with a clatter.  Yugi's heart began to pick up speed.  He gently lifted the phone and listened.  His heart beat so loudly that he barely heard the pulsing tone that meant that the caller had hung up.  However, the voice, low and sinister, continued to echo in his mind long after he had put the phone back.  

_Kaiba…  _Yugi thought.  _Why is he calling me now?  _Before he could think of a possibility, the phone rang again.  Yugi only stared at it, frozen in place with fear.  Horrendous possibilities filled his mind.  Why was Kaiba being so audacious anyways?  Didn't he know that Yugi had been talking to the police for most of the month?

Yugi's mouth suddenly felt very dry.  His hands, by contrast, were dripping sweat.  "Beep!"  Yugi actually jumped.  Then he heaved a sigh of relief.  _The answering machine…  _Dread locked his knees.  Nonetheless, he came closer to the answering machine.  "Hello, Yugi.  I wanted to return your dueling deck to you."

Yugi's skin pebbled.  Kaiba sounded so close.  He closed his eyes, forcing himself to breathe normally.

"Maybe if I catch you at home I can arrange to have the deck dropped off.  I wouldn't want to risk mailing it to you, what with the nasty weather."

Yugi's heart leapt into his mouth.  Suddenly even his small room seemed much too large and the shadows far too dark.  Why, Kaiba could be lurking anywhere.

"Oh, and Yugi," Kaiba added, "The police are on my side.  They can't help you.  You're wasting time telling them what happened.  Did you know that they've been destroyed the records of your appointments?  As per my orders, of course.  They have no wish to annoy me."

Yugi gasped aloud.  Even for a bluff – for it _was a bluff, wasn't it? – it was a horrendous possibility.  As if he had heard him, Kaiba began to laugh.  "I'm watching you very, __very closely.  Do you see me, Yugi?  Look around you, and you might…"  Before Kaiba could finish, the answering machine ran out of tape.  Yugi remained frozen beside it.  He could almost feel Kaiba's eyes boring into him.  With great effort he rose and turned on the light to his bedroom.  With the darkness gone, it came as no surprise that Kaiba was not in the room.  But if he were to turn the lights out again…  Ridiculous! he berated himself._

"Yugi!" came a raspy call from downstairs.

Trembling seized Yugi until he realized that it was only Sugoroku back from his errands.

He nearly forgot the telephone calls that night while discussing the shop's new games with his grandpa.  While the argument with Yami had cut his spirit to the quick, Kaiba was one trauma that his brain literally shut out, at least for the moment.  On his way to bed that night, Yugi wondered why he had left his light on.  Then the phone jangled, and his body remembered.  When the answering machine picked up, however, the caller hung up with a click.  Almost an hour passed before Yugi could get drowsy.  Just as his dreams were starting to bear him away into the first round of arguments with Yami, the phone rang.  Yugi sat bolt upright in bed.  Sweat drizzled from his every pore.  Terror made Yugi bold, and he bounded to the wall and unplugged the answering machine.  Then he made his way back to bed.  About five minutes later the phone rang.  Yugi did not answer it.  Instead, he hid his head under his pillow and listened to the beat of his heart and the chatter of his teeth.

The next morning dawned bright and gray, as it had for indeterminable days before.  Yugi trudged to school, replaying Kaiba's cryptic message in his mind.  There was one positive aspect to Kaiba's renewed interest in him, Yugi thought cynically.  It kept him from thinking of Yami all live long day.  It could not, however, repair the spirit Yugi had lost to Kaiba, Yami, and Jounouchi.  Without the latter two, he no longer had energy for puzzles or even smiling.  His heart was as chill gray as the sky.  As he was about to cross the street to Domino High School, he noticed an odd sight out of the corner of his eye.  A black car fitted with expensive silver trimmings was slowly nosing along behind him.  The windows were tinted, so Yugi couldn't see inside.  Nonetheless, he couldn't shake the feeling that the car was interested in him for some reason.  Suddenly a reason stood out in his depression-fogged mind.  _Kaiba!  Yugi forced himself to cross the street normally, though he did watch out of the corner of his eye to see what the car would do.  It glided silently down the street, maintaining its eerily slow speed.  Yugi hurried into the school.  Though no one really talked to him anymore, it would be comforting to surround himself with people whom he didn't have to regard with suspicion.  _

Once inside, Yugi went to his locker as he always did.  Even in the days when he'd had friends to speak of, he had never found notes inside of his locker.  Always the little space was occupied with darkness.  Today, however, a fat envelope eclipsed the darkness.  Yugi's pulse quickened as he took it out.  Who could it be from?  Perhaps it was from Jounouchi.  Or maybe it was Anzu and Honda's last effort to talk to him.  Yugi held the note against his chest for a second, feeling loneliness surge through him.  When the feeling passed, he felt somewhat foolish for it.  He had been acting like a swooning, lovesick girl.  He opened the envelope and unfolded a single piece of paper.  On it was written in a spidery, tiny handwriting, _Though__ I am watching you night and day, I get the feeling that you are avoiding me…  Don't you want your dueling deck back?  _

Yugi drew in his breath sharply.  _Kaiba!  He hurriedly stuffed the note back into his locker.  He hadn't seen Kaiba at Domino High School since his company had really taken off.  That had been right before the Duelist Kingdom Invitations went out.  So how had the note gotten here?  Had Kaiba planted people in Domino High School too?  Yugi hunched his shoulders tightly as if he could hide from Kaiba that way.  He suddenly had the feeling that it was going to be a very long day._

All that morning, Yugi could not focus.  He kept scrutinizing his classmates.  Who, he wondered, would have planted that note in his locker?  Or was it a bully boy from another class lower on the academia ladder?  Perhaps Kaiba had sent his men to the school before it opened…  He found that the possibilities were quite numerous when carefully considered, which meant that the notes weren't likely to cease.  

On his way home from school, Yugi glimpsed a car of the same make as the one from that morning.  While the morning car had been coal black, however, the one he saw in the afternoon shone with a ghostly pearl-white luster.  It trailed him for several blocks, finally turning off when Yugi hid inside of a shop for a quarter of an hour.  His nerves were taut by the time he got home.  After he had waited out the white car, he had kept feeling an itch between his shoulder blades, as if someone were staring at him.  The moment he had stepped into the house, the phone began to ring.  Yugi let the answering machine –plugged in earlier by Sugoroku no doubt -pick up.  As he expected, it was Kaiba.

"You know, it's rude to crumple up people's notes to you, especially where they can see them."  Yugi blinked, wondering just what Kaiba was talking about.  Then he remembered shoving the note back into his locker as hastily as if he feared it would burn him.  "Oh, but I want to mention that a reply once in a while _would_ be nice…if you feel up to it…"  Yugi could no longer listen; he was bristling with indignity.  

"A reply?" he fumed, stalking back and forth.  "I'll give you a reply, Kaiba!  I'll give you a piece of my mind that will choke you!"  Anger was fire in his blood, a strange contrast to the sullen humor that had circulated with it recently.  Yugi wasn't certain that he liked the change, however.  The intense fury he had felt bordered on hatred, something foreign to him.  Yet hatred was no more than Kaiba deserved, wasn't it?  Yugi pondered his own question in the silence of his empty house.  He did not have long to think over it, for the phone jangled again.  Once more, Kaiba's voice filled Yugi's hallway.  Yugi put both hands over his ears and allowed the roar of his blood drown out the CEO's voice.

After an hour's worth of Kaiba's messages, Yugi conceded defeat and unplugged the phone.  _Quiet at last_, he thought with a measure of relief.  

Despite the reprieve for the rest of that night, the morning began the cycle anew.  The black car loomed in the morning gloom, and the white one, more persistent, materialized in the afternoon.  Once Yugi lingered in a manga shop for two full hours.  The car, however, had stayed like a hearse waiting to bear him away.  Yugi suspected that the car's mission was to find out where he lived.  He had stayed behind the tall racks filled with manga, peering discreetly at the window.  What if the car was still there when the shop closed and he had to move on?  Luckily the car left first that time.  

However, on the fifth day, Yugi found a new note in his locker.  _Don't stay out too long after sunset.  That's when people get spirited away.  Yugi wasn't certain whether he should perceive it as a threat or not.  As a strategist himself, he knew it could be a clever device meant to get him to go straight home after school.  However, if he could get the police to investigate the white car, what better place for the car to come than Yugi's own house?  Yugi went straight home after school that day.  The car followed him the entire way.  Yugi laughed to himself with a dour, grim humor.  _Yami's not the only one who can fend for himself using clever traps, _he thought.  He dialed the police station, thinking of how surprised Kaiba would be when he found the line busy.  _

"Domino Police."  

"This is Mutou Yugi at Kame Game Shop," Yugi said.  "I've had a white car stalking me for the past three days."

"License plate?"

"K.C.W.T."  _Kaiba Corporation White, _Yugi thought to himself.

"K.C.W.T.," the officer repeated.  "Anything else?"

"I've also received threats at school and at my house," Yugi said.  "And in the morning, a black car follows me to school.  I never got to see its license plate because it's been behind me.  Whenever I turn around to look, it drives off."

"Any idea who could be behind these incidents?"

"Kaiba Seto," Yugi said.

"Kaiba Seto?  That's odd.  I've been hearing some other complaints about him," the police officer remarked.  "Hey, wait a minute!  You're _the_ Mutou Yugi, aren't you?  The one who was in here because Kaiba allegedly kidnapped him?"

"Yes, that was me," Yugi said awkwardly.  

"Do you realize that Kaiba is the CEO of his own company?" the police officer said.  "What makes you think that you can slander him like this and get away with it?  If he were doing all that you say, his company would surely go under!"  Suddenly the police officer sounded angry.  "I think that you and your grandfather had best stick with that psychologist we recommended.  We were willing to tolerate your presence for a few weeks, but we have since found that Kaiba was in Honolulu closing a major business contract during the week that you were his 'hostage.'  We have irrefutable proof of it from him.  He has mentioned that the two of you are rivals in Duel Monsters, but this is ridiculous.  The next time you call to make a false claim, Mutou Yugi, the Domino Police might suggest to Kaiba that he take you and your grandfather to court.  Liars are as punishable by law as felons, particularly when the rumor is of such a savage nature."  The officer hung up with a click. 

Yugi's head whirled as he set down the phone.  Kaiba had managed to buy off the police!  "No," he whispered, slumping against the wall in utter despair.  All this time he had believed that the police would eventually bring the almighty Kaiba to justice.  Yet all the times he had lived and relived the nine days he had spent in hell had fallen entirely to nothingness.  Yugi gritted his teeth.  Since he could not depend on the police, the danger he was in would surely be heightened.  His chest constricted.  Had Kaiba known that he would lead the white car to his house and then attempt to alert the police?  

When Sugoroku got home, he found Yugi, white-faced, still by the phone.  "What's wrong, Yugi?" he asked.

Yugi spilled out the entire story, starting from the phone calls, which Sugoroku knew about already, to the threats, the cars, and finally the phone call to the police station.  Sugoroku listened attentively to all that his grandson had to say.  Then he sighed and put a reassuring hand on Yugi's shoulder.  "Yugi," he said hesitantly.  "I really don't want to say this.  I want to believe in all that you're telling me.  Yet-"

Yugi's muscles went rigid.  For a moment Sugoroku thought that his grandson was about to break down completely.  "You went through great trauma a month ago.  I won't deny that.  However…  I wonder if what you are telling me might not be the result of an extended period of depression and trauma…  I think it would be wise if we visited the psychologist again.  Perhaps he can give some perspective on the matter that we cannot find."

"No!" Yugi burst out.  He had no wish to ponder the internal workings of his mind when a majority of the problems he had were purely external.  "Forgive me, grandpa.  But I _won't_ go!"  Without another word of explanation, Yugi stormed off to his room.  

During the rest of the week, the threats in Yugi's locker became more and more vague.  The white and black cars seemed to have vanished from the face of the earth.  This frustrated Yugi, and he now spent his walks to and from school searching for what he once feared and despised.  He began to wonder if Sugoroku was right, that these problems were purely wrought of the mind.  Even the phone had fallen dead.  During this quieter period, his heart would not release his old worries.  In fact, the pressure in his mind was growing, pressing upon him with almost unbearable tension.  Something was going to happen soon!  He just knew it!  He could feel it every morning as he looked for the missing cars and in the silence that the ringing of the phone once filled.  As time wore on, still with nothing transpiring, Yugi tired of his vigil.  Nonetheless he could not shake the sensation that this silence was a prelude to the height of the storm. 

{**********************************************************************************************************}

Jherrus has reminded me of a character I forgot (oops).  Mokuba…  Heh, heh.  Maybe Kaiba has dissociative identity disorder/multiple personality disorder, so one part of him can care for his lil bro and be all tender and the other part of him can desire wanton sex with Yami…  Hmm…  No, that can't be it…  Aliens must have abducted Mokuba and sucked out Kaiba's Z-dimension, leaving him two dimensions – X and Y!  Nah, I just spaced out and forgot Mokuba existed for a while.  Sorry everyone.  (I really am sincere in this apology, despite the zany stuff I just wrote.)  I hope you aren't too disappointed.

Oh yes, something else I wanted to mention in case it wasn't clear in this chapter…though Yami does say it almost straight-out.  The reason he is so uptight about Jounouchi liking Yugi is because of Kaiba.  Kaiba, of course, is also homosexually inclined.  He acts on this desire with manipulation (taking Jounouchi and Yugi hostage) and violence (torturing Jounouchi and starving Yugi, almost raping Yugi).  Yami's take on the whole thing is that one homosexual is like another; he fears that Jounouchi will harm his aibou just as Kaiba tried to.  Thus Yami wants to get rid of Jounouchi, and he does…for a time anyways.


	15. The Silver Cross Reappears

Chapter Fourteen: The Silver Cross Reappears

            "I'm home," Yugi called as he opened the door.  Suspicious silence greeted him although he could hear the sounds of his grandpa moving about upstairs.  Yugi shrugged and meandered into the kitchen.  Outside he glimpsed the now-familiar drizzle.  The rain had definitely worn out its welcome in Domino City.  Nonetheless, the gloom seemed to have taken up permanent residence.  Yugi helped himself to a mug of hot tea that he could not taste; it was the warmth he was after.  Sipping slowly so it wouldn't overflow, Yugi sat down at the table.  Out of the corner of his eye he glimpsed a scrap of paper.  Yugi took it, figuring it was a stray bit of mail.  It was not, however.  Rather, it was a note from his grandpa.

            _Yugi, the scrawl read, __I am going grocery shopping.  I expect to be delayed because of the rain and won't be home before __nine o'clock_ tonight.  Fix yourself some dinner and cheer up!  The rain won't last forever.__

_ -Grandpa-_

Yugi read over the note twice, hardly believing it.  He gone grocery shopping with his grandpa before and knew it was rare to get back early.  Yet it appeared that Sugoroku had indeed gotten home early.  Yugi wondered what he was doing upstairs that was so important that he had not even bothered to greet Yugi upon his return, something he had never done before.  Yugi finished his tea and decided to go upstairs.  _Odd, he thought as he approached the stairwell.  Darkness blanketed the stairs and the upper hall.  And Yugi knew that he would have seen at least a little slant of light even if one of the doors to the upstairs rooms had been closed._

            Yugi swallowed hard.  His heart suddenly began thumping painfully against his chest.  "Grandpa?" he called.  "Please answer me, Grandpa!  This isn't…funny!"  Now in the hallway, Yugi could hear that the sounds were coming from his room.  Crash!  Something heavy had fallen.  The rain suddenly sounded louder.  Yugi clamped both hands over his mouth.  He was now certain that it wasn't his grandpa up there.  He had a disturbing thought of someone forcing his window open – it was a simple matter to climb to it – entering his room, and knocking his desk over.

            Suddenly all he had borne since the disastrous duel caught up with him.  Yugi's mind leaped from numbness to emotional overdrive.  Instinct took over, and Yugi backed down the stairs.  Adrenaline sizzled in his blood, quickening every breath until he was almost hyperventilating.  Images paraded through his mind, of the threats in his locker, the incessant ringing of the phone, Kaiba's cryptic messages on the answering machine, the strange glitzy cars that had followed him to and from school…  Slowly Yugi expelled every last memory from his mind.  It would avail no good to be overcome by the past when the present was so perilous.  Yugi summoned all of his courage and dueling instinct together, forcing himself to focus on the situation.  _Someone has broken in upstairs, concluded the somber voice in his mind that reminded him of Yami.  _The question is, whether they are Kaiba or not, are they going to come _downstairs?  Yugi's stomach lurched at the prospect of encountering the source of those ghostly sounds.  Another part of his mind, much less calm than the part that mandated duelist strategy, shrieked, __Is it Kaiba?  Well, is it?  As if in a dream, Yugi ventured to the front door.  Slowly he drew back the curtain that covered the window adjacent to the door.  To his horror, the white car that had trailed him home from school was parked right next to the front door.  _So it _is _Kaiba then.  Only he would be able to-  _"Oh my God!" Yugi whispered.  Two additional cars, both black, pulled up alongside the white one.  It was clear what would happen if he tried to get outside through the front way.  Indecision froze him for a precious minute.  He could only watch helplessly as the white car glided away from its fellows, presumably to the back of the house._

            Tears of frustration began to streak down Yugi's cheeks.  He quickly quelled a sob and silently returned to the kitchen, which overlooked the back side of the house.  The ghostly white car was there, shining in the rain.  Yugi dropped to the floor and looked frantically for a place to hide.  The thudding upstairs grew louder.  Suddenly he heard the familiar creak of the stairs.  Someone – Kaiba! - was coming down!  Yugi panicked and opened the cupboard under the kitchen sink.  There would be just enough room if he squeezed in…  His heart banged against his ribs as he doubled over in the dark and pulled the doors shut behind him.  Before long, he became uncertain just which of the sounds he heard were his heart and which he owed to the person upstairs.  Sweat dripped from Yugi's brow to his hands.  He wondered just how long he had crouched in the cupboard.  Had it been minutes or hours?  Would his grandpa find him in here when he got home?  Or would the intruder find his grandpa?  Would he simply stay in the cupboard and starve while the trespasser laughed through his teeth?  Kaiba!  It just had to be Kaiba!  Fear wove irrational thoughts of all manners, and before long, Yugi felt positively sick with fear.  The wind had begun to howl outside; Yugi knew since the cupboard was right underneath the window.  He felt rather like howling himself, but he was afraid that once he started screaming, he would not be able to stop.  

That realization was the last straw.  Yugi decided he had hidden long enough.  Bold thoughts were not easily put into action, however.  Yugi had to make several attempts before he could actually bring himself to open the door to the cupboard.  Even then, at first, his hands trembled too fiercely to be functional.  For a moment Yugi was felt terrified at the prospect that he might not be able to force the cupboard open himself, that he would have to wait in the moist shadows, molding like a human sandwich, for someone to open the doors for him.  The horrendous idea of Kaiba's face being the first thing he saw when he made it out of the cupboard gave him just enough strength to push the cupboard open.  

Though the afternoon had fallen into the shadows of dull twilight, Yugi blinked hard, the light smarting in his eyes.  Quavering a bit, he managed to pull himself upright.  His muscles ached from being squished in the cupboard.  Though he dreaded what he would see, Yugi peeped out the window.  To his relief, the white car was gone.  Soundlessly Yugi made his way to the stairs.  He could hear the moaning wind even more clearly up here than he could in the cupboard.  Chills skittered across his limbs with every step.  By the time he reached the top of the stairs, Yugi's teeth were chattering so rapidly that he had no hope of stopping them.  He made his way across the hall praying that the intruder had tired of waiting and left.  The wind had made a game of flinging Yugi's door into the wall with an unsettling bang.  As Yugi came closer, rain from the open window swirled into the hallway.  Finally Yugi managed to flip on his light switch.  

The sight before him was as he had expected.  His desk lay overturned.  Rain-dampened papers fluttered about the room and books, pens, and pencils had spilled all about the floor.  Yugi moved immediately to the window to shut it.  Before he did so, he checked outside.  The black cars, too, were gone.  _I waited them out.  _Yugi felt no elation at the prospect, only a sinking feeling that Kaiba was getting cockier as time went on.  He glanced at the clock on his bedside table.  A shudder wracked him.  He had gotten home from cram school at about seven-fifteen.  Only minutes later, he had hidden in the cupboard.  Now the clock read nine thirty.  _No sign of grandpa yet, _Yugi thought grimly.  _I wonder where he could be.  _Actually Yugi knew.  Sugoroku loved to chat.  Knowing him, he had probably run into a friend while shopping and forgotten both his grandson _and the time.  Yugi shoved at the window, trying to shut the storm out.  It wouldn't budge, no matter how hard he pulled.  Finally Yugi gave up for a minute and leaned against the window, letting the rain lash at his face.  A silver glint, knife-sharp, caught his eye.  When Yugi saw what the object was, his stomach lurched, and his mind abandoned him to the cruel ministrations of memory…_

_Shadows trailing in his wake, Kaiba approached Yugi.  His eyes were cavernous, painted, like the rest of his body, in the various hues of darkness.  He cupped one hand over a single candle.  The trapped light twisted and writhed as Kaiba drew closer to Yugi.  Illumination attempted to flee from its wick prison but always to no avail, for the cross Kaiba wore would always ensnare the light before it could escape.  In the dimness, the white glare the silver cross emitted was blinding, bringing tears to Yugi's eyes.  As much as he wished it, he could not look away._

A deep-rooted, long-suppressed screamtore loose from Yugi's throat.  He backed away from the cross and stumbled over the books that were strewn about the floor.  Terror flooded his blood.  His entire being commanded him to flee.  Yugi did not obey his own instinct, but huddled into a pathetic ball.  There he lay, trembling, on the floor.  Over and over, one single thought pounded through his head.  _I cannot fight Kaiba by myself!  Isn't there anyone who can help me?  If the police won't help, if Grandpa can't help, if Yami can't help…then who can?  _Sobs wracked his body, spilling out grief that felt infinite.  _Who…can? His mind echoed.  At last, when he could cry no more, Yugi sat up.  Wiping half-heartedly at his cheeks, he went back to the window and tugged the cross out.  The silver was so cold against his hand that it burned.  Yugi shut the window and held on to the cross tighter.  His rationale dwindled until one thought alone filled his head.  __I can't stay here another minute!   He quickly scrawled a note to Sugoroku and set it in the same place that he had found his grandpa's note.  Then Yugi set out to brave the storm and to seek the only one who could possibly help him, his final hope.  _

{**********************************************************************************************************}


	16. A Promise

Chapter Fifteen: A Promise

            Yugi slammed the door behind him and locked it.  He could not waste another minute!  He tore down the street as if Kaiba himself was after him.  _There is _one_ person who might be able to help me, _he realized.  _But I doubt that he would…after what Yami said to him…  But he is the only chance I have!    _

Yugi paid neither traffic nor puddles any heed.  The wind roared behind him, and the clouds rumbled their displeasure.  Yugi flew through the streets, whipping in and out of shadow and light.  His breath trailed behind him, a thick cloud of smoke in the cold air.  His legs, by odd contrast to the rest of him, burned as if they were afire.  It was as if he was flying across the pavement.  He dashed through the alley where Jounouchi had been captured, expecting at every minute to see Kaiba's men crouched behind the trashcans or atop tiny porches, like cats waiting to spring.  Though he feared the darkness much as he feared Kaiba himself, it was almost a pure, forgotten joy to stand in the open in the wind, in a space that light and shadows shared.  Yugi emerged from the alley at the row of apartments in which Jounouchi lived.  He took the stairs two at a time.  _Please be home, Jounouchi_, Yugi thought to himself.  He finally reached the top of the steps.  His heart began to pound.  What if Jounouchi refused to see him at all?  Yugi swallowed his doubts and knocked frantically at the door.  For several minutes, he stood staring at it, listening to the frenzied beat of his own heart.  At last he turned to go, his morale crushed.  It was then that the door opened.

            "Yugi," Jounouchi said.  His hair was tousled, and his clothes looked as if they had been slept in for a week.

            "Jounouchi!" Yugi whispered.  His violet eyes flooded with tears.  Without hesitation, Yugi flung himself into the blonde's arms.  His sobs poured out of him, the built-up agony of over entire month of isolation.  Jounouchi stiffened as if he suspected that Yami's wrath would descend upon him for offering Yugi any comfort.  Finally Jounouchi enclosed Yugi in the circle of his arms.          "The Sen Nen Puzzle…where is it?" Jounouchi asked.  His hand strayed to Yugi's cheek.

            "I…I…"  Yugi couldn't even answer his friend's question he was so overcome.    

"Why don't you come in for a while?" Jounouchi suggested.  "My old man's not home.  It should be okay."  Yugi did not have to look up to know that Jounouchi, too, was crying.  His tears, however, were confined inside of him, where the blonde usually hid them.

Yugi managed a weepy agreement. "We need to talk," Jounouchi said once they were inside, looking at Yugi's neck where the Sen Nen Puzzle once hung.  "Why are you here, Yugi?  What's wrong?"

"Kaiba bought out the police," Yugi burst out.  His shoulders began to quaver.  "And he started stalking me a week ago…  He left notes in my locker, sent cars to follow me home, called my house incessantly…"

Jounouchi's brown eyes widened with sympathy.  "Yugi," he whispered, drawing his friend back into his arms.  Yugi snuggled into Jounouchi's arms, not really thinking of what it might mean to the other boy.  For the moment it was enough that he felt safe.  

"And tonight, Grandpa was out grocery shopping…and Kaiba broke into our house."  

"That bastard," Jounouchi hissed.

"I never actually saw him," Yugi continued.  "But he left…this…"  Yugi opened his hand, where the silver cross was dangling from its chain.  "He was wearing this when he almost-"  Yugi shuddered.  The memories of what had almost happened were too horrible to put into words.  "Jounouchi, you're the only one who can help me!  The police are on Kaiba's side!  Even Grandpa doesn't believe me about the stalkings.  He thinks it's all in my mind.  Oh God!  _I_ don't even know now!"

"Yugi," Jounouchi murmured soothingly.  He ran his hands gently through Yugi's hair.  "_I believe you.  Kaiba's one sneaky son of a bitch.  But I wasn't able to protect you before…  You had to duel Kaiba to even have a chance at saving _me_."  Jounouchi trailed off as if he was hesitant to speak his mind.  "What about Yami?  Couldn't he do something permanent about Kaiba?"  As Jounouchi mentioned Yami, his voice became huskier, tinged with bitterness.  _

Yugi's heart surged with sorrow-tinged admiration.  What must it have cost Jounouchi to mention Yami as one who could help him?  Yet Yami was a part of the past, Yugi reminded himself.  He never wanted to see the spirit again.  "There's nothing Yami can do," Yugi said bleakly.  "He lost the peak of his powers once he decided that we were no longer a team, but halves of a person."  As he spoke, Yugi wound the silver cross up on its chain and set it spinning.

 "Yugi," Jounouchi whispered.  "I don't know how much better I'll be than Yami.  I don't have any special powers, and there are times when I am weak…  But, for what it's worth, I'll protect you…with my last strength if need be!"  Jounouchi's eyes blazed as he made the promise.  "I won't let Kaiba hurt you anymore!"  So saying, Jounouchi gently took the cross from Yugi's hand and set it on the coffee table.  

"Jounouchi…"

Suddenly Jounouchi's lips were upon his, warm and gentle.  A fiery flush flooded Yugi's cheeks.  His pulse seemed to trip.  Jounouchi pressed Yugi closer to him; Yugi could feel Jounouchi's hard muscles through his thin shirt, could sense his lusty power.  Yugi felt a chill snake through him.  The silver cross glinted out of the corner of his eye.  Fear cramped Yugi's insides.  He remembered all too well embracing Jounouchi at the door.  _What have I done? _Yugi's mind taunted in a sing-song voice.  He did not want Jounouchi to kiss him, not yet.  His memory needed time for forgetfulness to work its magic, to make intimate embraces signs of love and affection rather than power and domination.  Yet Yugi feared that if he refused Jounouchi, he would lose the one person left who believed him about Kaiba and all that had transpired in his mansion.  Without someone to confide in, Yugi knew that the chasm of his depression would yawn wider and wider until it eventually engulfed him.  He could see it as clearly as the next move in a round of duel monsters; he would go from isolation to depression to suicide.  Also without Jounouchi to protect him, Yugi was certain Kaiba would succeed in seizing him.  Though it would be Yami who Kaiba would rape, it was still Yugi's body.  The possibilities shot through his mind, uncovering terror and old memories.  Uncertain what he should do, Yugi went as stiff as a doll beneath Jounouchi, 

"Yugi…"  Jounouchi drew back, concern in his eyes.  "What is it?"

Yugi could not answer.  Feeling both ashamed and foolish, he shook his head and stared at the cross.

"It's about Kaiba, isn't it?" Jounouchi said.  Frustration tinged his voice.  "I'm trying to understand, Yugi.  Believe me.  You need time, right?"

"That's part of it," Yugi forced himself to say.

Jounouchi sighed.  "I want you, Yugi.  I've wanted you since before Kaiba ruined both of our lives.  Please forgive me if I seem impatient."  Penitent, Jounouchi bowed his head.  "I know you need time to heal.  And I'm willing to wait, even until the end of time if that's what you need."

"Jounouchi," Yugi interrupted.  "There is more than that.  I need time to sort out these feelings inside of me…  I don't want to give you false hope.  However, right now, I can only see you as a dear friend, the best I've ever had, one whom I would never want to lose!"

At those words, Jounouchi broke down.  He could not bring himself to meet Yugi's eyes.  "So close, yet so distant," he muttered.  Yugi could tell from Jounouchi's voice that he felt both betrayed and confused.

"Oh Jounouchi…  I did not mean to deceive you," Yugi said.  He placed a gentle hand on Jounouchi's shoulder.  "Please forgive me," he begged.  "I was afraid that if I refused you, you would write me off…just like I did Yami."

"Yugi…"  Jounouchi flinched and rose from the couch.  He turned his back on his friend, ashamed for him to see him cry.  "I would never do that!  Ever!  Even if you weren't interested in me for love, it would be painful, but I would get over it…I think.  What you must know is that I treasure our friendship more than anything.  I don't want you to be unhappy, least of all because of me.  So know this.  You don't have to be my lover.  I would still protect you, for what it's worth.  If you ever need a friend, I'll be there.  And if you ever want me as I want you…well, I'll be there too."

"_Arigatou, Jounouchi," Yugi said softly.  He wiped the tears from his eyes and vowed to be strong.  "Can I stay here for a while?  I think that we have to talk."_

Jounouchi sniffled loudly and turned back to Yugi with a grim sort of smile on his face.  "Okay.  I'll go make some tea.  It'll make both of us feel better, I think."

When Jounouchi returned with the tea, the storm had lulled enough for a shaft of silver moonlight to stream in through the living room window.  In the pale light, Yugi's hair shone as gold, and his eyes sparkled like amethysts.  The boy's beauty pierced Jounouchi's heart.  "Where is the Sen Nen Puzzle?" Jounouchi asked, trying to take his mind off of Yugi's exquisiteness.

"I left it back at home," Yugi confessed.  "I haven't worn it for this entire month.  After what Yami said to you, I told Yami that I never wanted to see him again.  He was trying to live my life for me."

"You know," Jounouchi said, "the only one who might be able to do something about Kaiba is Yami."

Yugi opened his mouth to protest, but Jounouchi held up a hand for silence.  "Think about it, Yugi.  You have tried for a full month to get Kaiba off your back.  The guy has more tricks up his sleeve than a magician.  You know full well that Yami can do things that we can't.  That might be the edge we'll need."

Yugi sighed and stared into his tea.  "I suppose you have a point.  I'll try talking to him when I get home.  Have you talked to Honda and Anzu lately?"

"No," Jounouchi said.  "I've been holed up here, mostly.  They've called, but I never picked up.  I haven't been at school lately, either…  It just hurts too much to try and go on with life.  There are times when I just don't care anymore."

"I think that's what we need to do," Yugi said.  Though his words sounded courageous, he couldn't recall ever feeling wearier as he said them.  "We need to piece together our lives again.  I'll start with Yami, and you can talk with Anzu and Honda.  The reason Yami and I lost the duel with Kaiba was because we weren't working together.  If we're to overcome Kaiba, I have a hunch that we'll need to come together…all of us."

Jounouchi nodded his agreement.  "Yugi," he said hesitantly.  "It really doesn't bother you – my feelings for you that is?"  He sounded so sad that Yugi's heart went out to him.

Yugi remained silent for a minute. "No, Jounouchi," he said at last.  "In fact…"  Yugi's heart brimmed with mixed sorrow and anticipation as the words for his suddenly inexplicable feelings left his lips.  "I'm…glad that you'll wait for me," he finished hastily.  A slow blush spread across his cheeks as Yugi gently kissed Jounouchi.  "_Oyasumi_," Yugi said, his heart beating faster.  "I should go home now," he said.

"I'll walk with you," Jounouchi said.

Forgotten, the silver cross twinkled in the moon's pure light.

{**********************************************************************************************************}

I had no idea that yaoi (even slightly yaoi) scenes were so difficult.  Sheesh!  I hope it doesn't suck too much.  Sorry people.  I seem to have overstepped my boundaries a little bit here.


	17. Common Body, Different Souls A Reconcil...

Chapter Sixteen: Common Body, Different Souls.  A Reconciliation.

The lights were on inside of Yugi's house when he and Jounouchi emerged from the alley which had dictated the events well into the next month.  Yugi smiled at Jounouchi, his heart feeling light for the first time in weeks.  "Thank you for walking home with me, Jounouchi," he said softly.  The rain had finally abated.  Yugi was certain that if he and Jounouchi had lingered outside, they would have been able to see the stars, like distant beacons, softly glowing in the sky.  "Be careful on your way back, okay, Jounouchi?"

Jounouchi nodded agreement, not with his former cockiness, but with a wariness born of experience purchased at a terrible price.  "I will, Yugi.  I'll talk to you tomorrow."

Yugi waved to Jounouchi and nimbly dashed to his door.  Barely before he got it open, his grandfather appeared with Yugi's note in hand.  "Yugi!" he sounded both surprised and elated to see him.  "It's so good that you're finally leaving the house again."

Yugi smiled weakly, remembering the frenzied words he had slopped so hastily onto the note.  _Going to Jounouchi's._  Don't worry.  __

"And look at that," Sugoroku added, pulling the door open a little further.  "The moon's actually poking through the clouds.  What did I tell you?  The rain can't last forever."

"Sure enough," Yugi agreed.  "I'm going to Jounouchi's early tomorrow, okay, Grandpa?"

Sugoroku's beam could have fired a one-hundred watt light bulb.  "Why, of course, Yugi," he said.

"So goodnight," Yugi said, going up the stairs before he could talk himself out of it.  Upstairs were countless vile memories that he had to face this night.  Nonetheless, Yugi knew that facing the memories and surmounting them were his only real chance of breaking free from Kaiba's oppression.

Once in his room, Yugi spent about five minutes simply staring at the Sen Nen Puzzle.  At least an inch of dust had dulled the golden pyramid's luster.  Wistfully Yugi dragged his sleeve across it, leaving a smear of grime on his arm.  "Oh, who am I kidding?" he muttered.  There was no doubt in his mind that he did not want to put on the Puzzle.  Yugi gritted his teeth.  Jounouchi had railed during the entire walk home about reestablishing contact with Anzu and Honda and imparting the entire conflict with Kaiba.  Nonetheless, Yugi would have traded with Jounouchi in a heartbeat.  

Yugi sighed and placed the chain around his neck.  Chills raced up and down his spine.  He had been so preoccupied with his own troubles over the past month that he had forgotten the immense magical power that surrounded the puzzle.  He sat for a minute, marveling at the tingle that raced through his hands and chest.  Much to his dismay, Yami was not inviting him in.  _I suppose it's up to me to take the initiative then, _Yugi thought with a trace of dread.  

He closed his eyes and concentrated as hard as he could.  The tingle from the puzzle spread from his hands to his arms and  from his arms to his shoulders.  It was like being submerged in icy water.  When the energy had spread through his entire body, Yugi opened his eyes.  

Sure enough, he was in the dark hallway that separated his and Yami's soul rooms.  Without hesitating, despite the dryness in his mouth, Yugi entered his Yami's room through the open door.  Not a single light broke the still darkness.  Yugi swallowed hard, reminding himself that this was not the icy darkness of Kaiba's mansion, nor yet the windswept shadows of Domino's month-long storm.  Here the air was dry and warm, much like interred breath.  

Suddenly a hand seized his shoulder, gripping it with impossibly strong fingers.  Yugi gasped and batted ineffectively at the one who touched him in the dark.  "Yami!" his voice came out in a squeak.

"Yugi."  His yami's voice was dispassionate, even detached.  "I believe your exact words were, 'I never want to see you again!'"  Yami made bitter mockery of Yugi's voice, portraying it in a pitch more appropriate for a woman than that of a young man.

"I…"  All of the old anger Yugi bore toward his other self flared.  He barely choked it down.  "I was wrong to say that.  It's not true."

"Oh?"  Yami could not have jammed more condescending arrogance into that single word if he had tried.  He roughly released Yugi's shoulder and let the smaller boy stumble in the dark.  Then he began to circle his hikari in the darkness.  "And why, if I may ask without offending you?"

Yugi bit his lip.  It was truly unnerving to speak to a disembodied voice that kept coming from different directions.  "_Mou hitori no boku_,(1)" he said, "could we please have some light in here?  I would rather talk to you face to face."

A derisive chuckle.  "Perhaps I like the dark.  Perhaps this is _my soul room."_

"True enough," Yugi replied.  His nerves tensed.  Clearly a full month had not blunted the edge of Yami's ire.  "Well in that case, I'll tell you in the dark.  I need you, Yami.  I'm in awful trouble."

To this Yami said nothing.

Yugi had thought it would be difficult to admit his problems to Yami, but now that he had started, the horrendous events of that past month once again flooded from his lips.  "Kaiba didn't give up just because we escaped his mansion.  He still wants you, Yami.  And because he wants you to appear to him, he's stalking me.  He broke into our house yesterday…  He's getting cockier all the time."

"Why did you come to me?" Yami interrupted.

"…Jounouchi suggested that you would know what to do about Kaiba."  Suddenly Yugi was grateful for the darkness that concealed his flaming cheeks.

"Jounouchi said that, did he?" Yami sounded incredulous.  "Even after what I said to him…?"

"I agree with him," Yugi quickly added.  "I believe that if we are to overcome Kaiba and have things go back to normal, we, all of us, will have to unite against him.  If we cannot come together, well then, he has already won.  Only together were we able to overcome him in the past."

"Is _that what you believe?"  Yami ceased his pacing.  _

Yugi clapped both hands over his mouth.  He hadn't meant to speak so freely…it had just slipped out.  It was too late to take the words back.  He wondered what Yami would do.

Yami remained silent for such a long time that Yugi became uncomfortable and began to shuffle his feet.  At length, a single silver torch flickered to life.  Its glow barely illumined Yami's soul room.  In its light, Yugi could see that Yami was standing right in front of him, like a mirror image of himself, only older.  In his eyes, despite the dimness, there was no mistaking the arrogance, byproduct of the sheer power of a man who had commanded an entire empire by himself.  Yet there was something else in those eyes as well, a benevolence possessed by only the greatest of monarchs.

"_Mou hitori no boku?" Yugi queried._

"No," Yami said.  "Don't speak.  Let me say what my heart commands I must.  Though I am but a spirit, a remnant of a time when magic flourished, I often forget…  Your life is not mine to live, and your body is mine only to share.  When you wanted to linger near Jounouchi, I thought that it was something that I could not in good conscience let you do.  The reason is this: Jounouchi's sexual tastes are like to those of Kaiba's."

Yugi listened intently to his yami, wondering just what he meant by what he was saying.  Then it struck him.  Yami was apologizing for what had happened that awful day almost a month past.  He hurriedly smothered his astonishment, not wanting to injure the spirit's pride any further.

"I thought that Jounouchi would be like Kaiba, forcing you into acts that you did not wish.  Can you blame me, _aibou?"_

Yugi wordlessly shook his head.

"Yet Jounouchi, as he has proved himself, is not Kaiba, nor is he like Kaiba.  Otherwise he would have taken on the full responsibility of protecting you himself."  Yami's cheeks colored faintly.  "I regret to have spoken to him as I did.  I hope that he will understand…if I speak to him again."

At that moment, Yugi understood that this was as close to an admission of guilt as he and Jounouchi would get from Yami.  "I'm certain he will understand," he told Yami in a voice that he hoped would conceal his recognition of the apology for what it was.  "Will you help us then?" Yugi asked again.

Yami bowed his head and closed his eyes.  When he met Yugi's eyes again, he smiled with a familiar confidence and conceit.  "Yes, _aibou_.  We should get together with Jounouchi to plan what to do about Kaiba."

"You have an idea already?"  Yugi looked dubious.

Yami smirked.  "Even Kaiba, as powerful of an opponent as he is, cannot overcome his intrinsic longings.  If he has, in fact, done as you claim, then surely he is desperate by now.  And desperate men will do anything, even wager on a game…"

{********************************************************************************************************}

(1) Yugi's name for Yami in the Japanese version of Yugi.  _Mou hitori no boku_ means something to the effect of "another me" or "my other self"  Yami calls Yugi _Mou hitori no ore, which is the same idea.  The only difference is in __boku versus __ore.  __Ore is a rather macho way for a guy to address himself.  _Boku_ is the less macho of the two.  _

_Oyasumi__ (from the last chapter) means good night._


	18. The Gathering of Friends

Chapter Seventeen: The Gathering of Friends

            "Jounouchi!" Honda whispered in shock.  "I don't understand.  Are you saying you're gay, and you never told us?"  Hurt was in his friend's eyes and betrayal in his voice.

            Jounouchi suddenly felt as if he were the accused in an extensive investigation, even though he was really in his own living room among two of his best friends.  His nervousness did not make his coming out – of sorts – any easier.  He threw up his hands in exasperation.  "Let me try to explain it one more time…"  The blonde raked a hand through his hair, choosing his words carefully.  Honda and Anzu had been as shaken as he had imagined.  

Before he could speak, Anzu said, "Jounouchi, what about Mai?  Didn't you have feelings for her at the Duelist Kingdom?"

            Jounouchi swallowed hard.  More confusion to muddle him and drag him down, keeping him from action.  "Yes, Anzu.  That's what's so strange about this whole thing."  He thought again of the female duelist, with her exquisite golden hair, her eyes – the hue of twilight – of her seductive body, bronzed from the sun.  He had indeed wondered what it would be like to touch her as a lover, whether her skin would be silken smooth as he had always imagined it.  Yet…  Jounouchi shook his head.  Now that he considered it, Yugi and Mai did resemble one another in terms of hair and eyes.  But that wasn't the reason he loved Yugi.  "I do…_did_ love Mai.  But, you know, Anzu, she is unattainable.  She is a woman, already living on her own.  I'm a high school boy with some years left to go.  Yugi on the other hand…is here _now_.  He's sweet and innocent, and…"

"You're rambling, Jounouchi," Honda said.

Jounouchi sighed, hoping against hope that he was getting through to his friends.  "Yugi's a guy, and I do, in fact, like girls.  But our friendship is on a deeper level.  It _is possible for friendship to turn into love if it's strong enough, _isn't_ it?" he challenged them._

            Honda shrugged and looked at the floor uncomfortably.  

            "I don't think I'm gay in the traditional sense," Jounouchi continued.  "If not for Yugi…"  He blushed.  "I never would have believed that two men could fall in love."

Anzu met Jounouchi's eyes without wavering.  "I can't pretend to understand everything you're saying, Jounouchi," she said at last.  "We don't see eye to eye on many things.  But I'm not going to discourage you, either.  You have to follow your heart to be happy, right?"

"Anzu…"  Jounouchi smiled.  He remembered not too long ago that she had risked being kicked out of school to work, planning to use the money from to live in America, the foreign country where she would pursue her dancing ambition.  If anyone knew about following the heart, no matter how strange its wishes, it was she.  

Honda coughed.  "Jounouchi," he said painfully.  "I'm going to be honest.  We've been friends for a long time, and this is very unexpected.  But I'm not going to stop being your friend just because I'm a little more aware of who you are."

Jounouchi's eyes filmed over.  He felt incredibly relieved to have the support of his friends, and he knew that Yugi would be as well.  He knew that it wouldn't always be this easy, that there would be people who would point, gawk, and jeer.  There was also Kaiba to consider.  _But, _Jounouchi reminded himself, _one victory at a time.  _

{****}

            As Yugi and Yami walked to Jounouchi's place, Yugi noticed a strange mood, suspicious alertness, emanating through Yami's mental link.  The closer they came to Jounouchi's apartment, the more potent the feeling grew until Yugi could feel his own stomach churning from it.  Yugi tried without success to keep from staring at his Yami.  His other self was so preoccupied that he did not notice.  In fact, he was so distracted that he had forgotten to block his thoughts from Yugi.  Before long, Yami's anger-tinged wariness of Jounouchi began to seep through the link.  Yugi's heart nearly stopped when he realized that Jounouchi was the cause of his yami's distress.  Yugi shuddered.  Despite his eloquent words from the night before, Yami was still suspicious of Jounouchi.  Yugi could hardly blame him, especially after Kaiba had dealt with his own homosexuality in such a violent way.  Though Yugi did not believe that Jounouchi had it in him to be a sadist, he doubted Yami would see it that way, especially feeling as he did now.  He wondered if such anger and mistrust had been flowing through Yami's veins when he had confronted Jounouchi a month ago.  Thinking of the past reminded Yugi of other experience he had with Yami's overprotectiveness.  He remembered being locked in the puzzle, oblivious to the world outside, knowing that his captor – Yami – would never heed reason so long as Yugi's safety was in question.  

A knot formed in Yugi's stomach.  What would Yami do if he found out that he and Jounouchi were all but promised to one another as lovers?  After all, he had no inkling of the mutual attraction between the two of them. In his volatile present state, Yami might well go berserk and lock Yugi in the puzzle again.  At the very least, it might jeopardize Yami's helping him with Kaiba.  

Yugi and Yami mounted the steps to Jounouchi's apartment in silence and crossed the hall.  Yugi could hear voices, sometimes Honda's and Anzu's, but most frequently Jounouchi's.  It sounded as if he was fervently explaining something.  Yugi couldn't help but think of how his friend's voice carried when he caught the words, "gay" and "Yugi."  

Yami looked at Yugi, who had turned crimson.    

            "Yami," Yugi said, his voice sounding much too high in his own ears.  His palms began to sweat.  "Do you think that we'll ever get our dueling deck back from Kaiba?"  It was a lame question, right out of the blue, but he _had _to divert the spirit long enough so he would forget what he had heard.  He wondered if Yami – master strategist – suspected that Yugi was trying to distract him.  His pulse beating in double time, Yugi withered under Yami's gaze.  He made a mental note to confer with Jounouchi on the matter of their relationship as soon as he could get the blonde alone.  

            "I have no idea, Aibou," Yami replied curtly.  

            Yugi barely stopped his fist from trembling as he raised it to knock on Jounouchi's door.  Had Yami been listening to what Jounouchi had been saying closely?  _What had Jounouchi been saying?  It could have pertained to Kaiba, certainly.  If Jounouchi had been "coming out", would he think to precaution Anzu and Honda against saying anything in front of Yami?  And if he forgot to warn them, would one of them slip up?  Yugi suddenly felt as tense as he had in the days when Kaiba had been stalking him.  The Sen Nen Puzzle weighed heavily on his neck as he knocked.  The hum of conversation died down as Jounouchi answered the door.  Before the blonde could hug him, Yugi pushed past him into the living room, where Honda and Anzu were seated on the sofa._

            Feeling as if he had wandered into a time warp, Yugi sat in a chair at an exquisitely painful distance from Jounouchi.  Honda and Anzu seemed unchanged from the day he had last seen them.  Save for their obvious worry, he could almost pretend that nothing had changed.

            "I told them what happened, Yugi, but they want to hear it from you too," Jounouchi said, not meeting Yugi's pleading eyes.  An entire hour passed, in which Yugi retold his friends as much of his misery as he could recollect, starting from the very beginning.  He carefully left out his and Jounouchi's confessions to one another, hoping that his friends would take the hint.  Honda and Anzu listened without a word as Yugi spoke.  

"Oh Yugi!" Anzu whispered as Yugi finished telling of all that had transpired in the past month.  "That's so…"  She bit her lip.

            "If I'd had any idea that Kaiba was going to pull something like that, I would have come with you," Honda said.  "All this time, I thought you were moping about losing.  I didn't think that you were…"

            Yugi smiled at his friends reassuringly.  "I can't let Kaiba keep this up, Yami did, in fact, lose the duel, which was a fair one."

            "So how are you going to get around it?" Anzu asked.

            Yugi shrugged.  "That's what we're here to figure out.  There must be a way…"

            "_Aibou," Yami said.  "I know a way."_

            Yugi fell silent for a moment, and his hand strayed to the Sen Nen Puzzle.  "Yami says he has a suggestion," he said.  "I'll watch from inside the puzzle."

            Yugi closed his eyes.  As he did so, his heart began to thunder in his ears.  The memories of the last time he had switched with Yami were negative enough to make him nervous.

            When Yugi opened his eyes again, his eyes bore the confident concentration of his yami.  "As Yugi has pointed out, we need a way to permanently stop Kaiba from stalking us.  To do so, I propose that we hold another duel."

            "Didn't you lose the last duel?" Honda piped up.

            Anzu and Jounouchi shot him furious looks.

            Yami only laughed bitterly.  "It's okay, really.  Why deny what is?"

            Honda, Jounouchi, and Anzu exchanged puzzled looks.  Since when had Yami become so…humble?

            "I have had an entire month of solitude to consider why I lost the duel with Kaiba," Yami said.  "This is the conclusion that I have reached.  Actually it has plagued me since the moment the duel ended.  I lost the trust of the heart of the cards because I could not trust in my other self.  I underestimated his abilities and overestimated my own.  Aibou has said it himself.  To win, we must work together."

            "So what do _we_ have to do with this second duel?" Honda asked.

            Yami raised an eyebrow.  "You three have been there for me in almost every duel.  Even when Pegasus kept the three of you from physically entering the arena of y_ami no gemu(1),__ I found the three of you in my heart, guarding aibou and my cards from Pegasus's searching eye.  Ours is a sacred hoop that should never be broken.  Now do you understand?"_

            "Our friendship augments the heart of the cards…  Is that what you're saying?" Anzu asked.

            "Yes," Yami said.  "But there is more to this duel.  At the core, you three are more Yugi's friends than mine.  My friends and comrades are long dust blowing upon the winds of time.  What I mean is that friendship is his power upon which to call."

            "Then what is yours?" Anzu asked, confused.

            "Shadow and deception," Yami answered with a trace of malice in his smile.  "When light and dark combine properly, they form the Chaos Soldier.  In our case, friendship – light – and shadow can come together to defeat Kaiba.  We will be unstoppable.  Just as we were before."

            "Wow; I still don't get it," Jounouchi said.  As Yami's crimson eyes locked with his, a chill skittered down his spine.

            "Don't worry about it," Yami said.  "All you three need to do is be there to support Yugi."  He crossed his arms, a sinister smirk forming on his lips.  "I will issue the challenge to Kaiba.  Of course, the presence of shadow will make the game effectively more _interesting_.  There is more, however."  Yami stood and began to pace the room.  "While I was locked inside of the Sen Nen puzzle for that month, I spent much of the time combing my old memories.  I was able to find a spell that will enable me to separate from Yugi and take a shape in the physical world.  I will use this power in the duel."

            "Didn't you just say that you and Yugi have to work together to win the duel?" Anzu asked.  "What purpose would separating from Yugi serve?"

            Yami managed a bitter smile.  "My loss still burns in my blood.  At that time, I put _mou hitori no ore in danger.  Not this time, however.  In the event that Kaiba wins, the game will call for him to violate me.  If Yugi and I are separated, Yugi will be spared the pain and humiliation.  He will still be there with the three of you, which means that our spiritual energies, the light of friendship and the dark justice from eons long dead, will still be able to combine and empower the heart of the cards."_

            Jounouchi rose to protest.  "How can you so sure?  If you just found this spell, then you haven't tested it properly!  How do you know that Yugi will be exempt from the repercussions just because the two of you are no longer dual spirits in one body?"

            "You act as if I have already lost," Yami remarked.

            "Well, you _did the first time," Jounouchi muttered._

            Yami glared at Jounouchi as if to say, 'Don't test me.'  "It is all in Yugi's best interest.  He isn't the one who Kaiba wants, as we found out last time.  Besides, it seems more fitting that I gamble with my _own _body." 

            Jounouchi made an exasperated sound and crossed his arms.

            "Are you with me?" Yami asked, daring them to say no.  "If you are, I will soon issue the challenge to Kaiba.  If you are not, I will still settle this between us, once and for all."

            Mumbled agreements all around.  Without another word, Yami closed his eyes.  When he opened them again, Yugi again sat in the midst of his friends.  The four of them looked at one another, knowing only that when Yami got that look in his eyes, victory was imminent…usually.

            At last Anzu spoke.  "I think that we should trust in Yami.  He's always come through before…well, almost always," she amended, blushing.

            "Yami can beat Kaiba better than any of us can," Honda pointed out.

            "_I asked him to do it for us," Yugi reminded Jounouchi.  "And, Jounouchi, __you convinced me to ask him.  I think it would be safe to say that we, too, are for Yami's proposal."_

            "I thought that he would come up with something better than another duel," Jounouchi admitted.  "But…if he doesn't duel Kaiba, then we've already lost."  He sat for a moment, lost in thought.  "I hope he does better on this one than the last one."

            Yugi gritted his teeth.  He could feel Yami's annoyance through the link that connected their minds.  _It's okay, Yami.  You know how Jounouchi is.  He just doesn't want for Kaiba to have a chance._

_            Aibou…somehow I think that is a generous assessment of the situation._

Yugi flinched.  _But you will still do it, won't you?_

_            Yes, of course.  Plan on being at the Domino Docks at midnight in three days, _the spirit added with his brash confidence.

_            What?!?_

_            Just trust in me…like you did before.  _

Yugi repeated Yami's message to his friends.  They nodded and accepted it without question.  Yugi's heart began to pound.  _I hope we can pull this off, he thought._

{*********************************************************************************************************}

(1) the shadow game in the English version


	19. Three Facets of Bitterness

Chapter Eighteen: Three Facets of Bitterness

            Yami stared out the window into the twilight.  The Sen Nen Puzzle lay forgotten atop Yugi's desk.  Though transparent as a specter, Yami was bound to the golden pyramid of dark power.  It was as if a chain held him to the puzzle while at the same time, a cumbersome heaviness weighed the puzzle down.  It made Yami think of an overly energetic dog leashed to a pole in the ground.  Yugi had gone off somewhere and completely forgotten the puzzle.  Yami supposed that time would restore his old habit of carrying it wherever he went soon enough.  However, for now, as alone as he had ever been, Yami had perfect conditions for brooding.  And there was much for the spirit to dwell on.  Oddly his thoughts were distant from the duel he would soon fight.  

The spell he planned to cast on the night of his and Kaiba's duel would only last for forty-eight hours.  He had not disclosed the matter to Yugi or his friends, not wanting to open the way to more questions and additional doubt.  In addition to the forty-eight hour spell, Yami had uncovered a permanent separating spell.  Since the casting of the permanent spell required a full moon, due after the duel would take place, it could not be used.  In the event that he lost, Yami planned to cast the permanent spell to keep Yugi out of Kaiba's reach.  As he went over his plan, the spirit wondered whether he should cast the spell of permanent separation even if he did win the duel.

Yugi, Yami reflected, had people who loved him, a future to look forward to, and memories he could, for the most part, access whenever he put his mind to it.  These were all the components of living one's life, Yami supposed.  He, on the other hand, was only an extension of his aibou with no real place in this modern realm.  Any memories he might have had were smoothed away by the sands of time.  As for the future, well, Yugi knew that he would live for a number of years, and then he would die.  For this above all, Yami envied his other half.  Yami, on the other hand, had lived for untold centuries, if one could call being interred in a gloomy labyrinth for several millennia living.  If Yugi were to perish, even of old age, Yami did not know whether he would be sealed again in the puzzle, if he would remain as a spirit, or some equally bizarre punishment.  He had no idea whether he would age, live, or die.  Thus, though Yugi would benefit from being permanently separated from his other self, Yami could not fool himself into thinking that he would.  

_On my own…with a body and a separate life…__  Yami carefully weighed the thought, envisioning carefully the smallest details of what casting the irreversible spell would entail for him.  _I am a man with no name…  What am I even doing in this era?  What is my purpose but to protect the boy with my face?  What purpose would it serve, then, to separate from him?  _Irrational anger flared in him as he remembered it was Yugi who was whole and he who was half.  And still the question lingered in his mind, unanswered.___

{****}

            Jounouchi stood in the alleyway waiting for Yugi.  Even the rains from before could not wash away the foul stench of the place.  If anything, it had grown stronger, rotting even further the already festering trash of this place.  Nonetheless, he couldn't leave Yugi to walk to his house alone.  What if Kaiba had hidden some of his goons in here?  It was better to brave the foul reek.  Jounouchi covered his nose with his sleeve, trying hard not to breathe.  All about him, the sounds of Domino City hummed like a purring cat.  Then he heard footsteps breaking through the din, Yugi's footsteps.

            "Yugi!" Jounouchi called, not wanting to scare him.  

            "Jounouchi?" Yugi answered.  He was not wearing the Sen Nen Puzzle.  "Why are you here?"

            Jounouchi straightened up and winked at his friend.  "I didn't want you to walk alone in the dark.  Something might swoop down and grab you."  To illustrate his point, Jounouchi caught Yugi in an embrace.  Yugi did not return it, remaining stiff in the blonde's arms.  Jounouchi flushed and set the petite boy down, realizing just then that his remark was in rather bad taste.  "You said you wanted to talk to me," Jounouchi said.

            Yugi nodded.  "But…let's talk at your place, okay.  I really don't want to take a chance on Yami being around to hear this."  He sounded so upset that Jounouchi was tempted to ask him what was on his mind.  

            "Okay," Jounouchi said.  He wondered what Yugi could possibly have to tell him.  They walked through the alley in silence.  Tantalizing and dangerous shadows of the past danced before their eyes.  

Once they reached Jounouchi's apartment, Yugi abandoned his stoic mask and hugged Jounouchi from behind.  Jounouchi's eyes widened.  They remained that way for some time.  Finally Jounouchi broke the embrace.  "Are you going to keep me in the dark?" Jounouchi asked gently.  He shut the door.

Yugi's eyes caught hold of Jounouchi's, making the blonde's breath quicken.  The connection between them was so strong that Jounouchi almost felt the smaller boy's pain in his chest.  "Jounouchi, when Yami and I started talking again, I never told him about…us.  He knows only that you and I are friends."

"So…?" Jounouchi thought for a minute.  "Aren't you going to tell him?  Anzu and Honda know, and they don't seem too upset."

Yugi shook his head violently.  "No!"  He began to tremble.

 "Yugi," Jounouchi whispered.  He took Yugi's hands in his.  "What business of Yami's is it that we are in love?"

After a moment of silence, Yugi burst out, "Yami still does not trust you!  He can say all that he wants to say about how you and Kaiba are different from one another.  But when it comes to acting on those words, he can't do it!  Jounouchi, when we were coming here, I could feel his emotions through the link between our minds.  He feared_ you as if you were Kaiba himself!"  _

"I had no idea," Jounouchi whispered.  "Is that why you ignored me earlier?"

"Yes…  _Gomenne(1)."  Yugi sniffled, wiping at his tears with the back of his hand.  "He must never find out!" Yugi warned. "If he knew, he might refuse to duel Kaiba!  Or worse, he might lock me up in the Puzzle again!"_

"Yugi," Jounouchi said severely.  "Calm down!"  His own forcefulness surprised him.  "He can't know, not yet!  You've been careful about thinking of me, right?"  

Yugi nodded.

"Yugi, I cannot think that Yami would want to deny you something that brings you so much happiness!  He once was closer to you than a brother!"  Incensed, Jounouchi began to pace the room.  Finally he broke off his pounding steps.  "Maybe if you just give him time to see that I'm not like that bastard, Kaiba…"

Yugi shook his head.  In a small, defeated voice, he said, "He'll never change his own heart.  He is more interested in my safety than in my happiness, Jounouchi."

"Yugi…" Jounouchi easily lifted him.  Jounouchi sat on the couch and lowered Yugi into his lap so that the two were facing one another.  The blonde wrapped his arms around Yugi.  "I love you, Yugi," Jounouchi breathed into his fragrant hair.  "I really hate to say this.  But I feared that this choice would come up eventually.  Even if Kaiba weren't a problem, I think Yami would disagree with our relationship simply because he can't be around to protect you all the time.  You can't make everyone happy all the time.  This time you might have to choose between my happiness and Yami's.  Will you be my lover, or will you be Yami's charge?  Will you break your own heart, or face Yami's anger?"

Yugi leaned his forehead against Jounouchi's.  "Jounouchi," he said, a tinge of surprise in his voice.  "You don't need me to be happy…"

"Don't I?" Jounouchi challenged him.  Jounouchi drew Yugi closer to him and kissed him, just a soft, gentle brushing of their lips.

"You make this harder for me, Jounouchi," Yugi whispered.  "But…"  There was no mistaking the pain in his voice.  Abruptly Yugi got up from the couch.  "Jounouchi…  I am sorry.  I really am.  But if we are to have a relationship, it must be absolutely secret from Yami."

"Dammit!" Jounouchi growled under his breath.  "Yugi…"  His eyes blazed with unspent desire.  "It's going to be impossible to keep a secret like this!  Yami is your other self!"

Yugi bowed his head like a penitent child.  "Jounouchi…  I'm trying to do this the best way possible.  If Kaiba is constantly lurking about looking for Yami, if he were to capture me again…how would that separation make our love fare?  If Yami locks me away like he did before…  I will die from missing you!"

"Yugi!" Jounouchi protested.  "This isn't a choice!  You're just compromising!"

"Maybe so, Jounouchi," Yugi conceded.  "Yet…it is a risk that I cannot take.  For my sake.  And for our sake.  Please try to understand."

"No!"  Jounouchi rose and caught Yugi's shoulder.  "I can't understand!  Yugi-"

Yugi was about to leave.  Jounouchi could see it in his eyes.

"Wait!" Jounouchi choked out.  "At least let me walk you home!  I have to keep you safe from Kaiba's buffoons before the duel."

"Jounouchi," Yugi said, his voice rising in a heartbreaking plea.  "Promise me!"

Jounouchi stared at his beloved.

"Promise me!" Yugi insisted more forcefully.

Jounouchi's chest ached from heartbreak.  "Okay, Yugi," Jounouchi finally agreed.  _Even now Yami stands between us, he thought in anguish._

{**********************************************************************************************************}   

(1) I'm sorry. 


	20. The Second Duel Part I

Chapter Nineteen: The Second Duel Part I

            Seto Kaiba sifted through the mail on his desk.  In an effort to forget about Yami, he had returned to work.  However, the hum-drum routine was hardly sufficient to keep his mind occupied.  He set the letters to one side and leaned his chin on his hands.  How dare his rightful spoils – in this case, his opponent's body and submission – be withheld from him?  Kaiba growled ever so softly.  Every time he thought about it, he felt like hurling something across the room, be it the stack of mail or his laptop computer.  Suddenly a black envelope caught his eye.  The CEO sneered.  Perhaps it was a resume or petition he could reject.  

When he turned the thick envelope over, he noticed the silver etchings.  Had he been in a less receptive mood, he would have dismissed the marks as chicken scratch, thinking even that the writer had mistakenly tested a pen on the envelope.  As it was, the markings looked uncannily familiar.  Kaiba carefully broke the seal.  The instant the paper inside touched his fingers, it was as if an electric jolt had flashed through his mind.  The marks on the envelope were Egyptian hieroglyphics.  And that could mean only one thing.  "Yugi," he whispered, suddenly more alert than he had been in days.  Immediately he thought of Yugi's strange obsession with Egypt, both the duel monsters card game and the miniature pyramid replica he wore around his neck.  "How very cute," the CEO muttered.  Inside was a thick piece of parchment that accounted for the heftiness of the envelope.  Kaiba removed the paper and smoothed it out on his desk.

            _Kaiba Seto,_

_            Your attentions of late have been most disturbing.  I realize that they are in light of our recent Duel Monsters match, in which I clearly was not the victor.  What I must bring to your attention, however, is the fact that the other me intervened wrongly in the interest of protecting me.   As regrettable as it is, I have come to agree with his opinion that the duel went unfairly for both of us.  In my case, you brought Jounouchi out to distract me just as I was about to secure victory.  You, of course, were robbed of the chance to assert your victory over me because of the actions _mou hitori no ore_._

Kaiba paused in reading the letter for a moment and swallowed. "Assert your victory over me?" he repeated softly.  His eyes grew vacant with the implications of that rather vague statement.  Sudden anger at the reality of the situation jerked him back into the present.  The fact was, he had _not taken his rival, and the dog had cost him countless inconveniences to keep the police force relaxed._

            _I propose that we try dueling again.  If you accept, as I know you will if you consider yourself a man, the place will be of my choosing.  To save you some time, since I know you are busy, I have chosen in advance: the abandoned warehouse on Domino Pier.  We will not be disturbed this time, I assure you._

Kaiba smirked at the intimacy of the tone.  Disturbed indeed!

            _Come **alone** at _midnight___ this coming Friday.  That will give you nearly three days to prepare your deck and strategy…not that you will win, mind you.  I would mention stakes for our little wager herein, but I would much rather handle that right before we begin the duel.  I'll see you then, Kaiba Seto._

            The letter was unsigned, but Kaiba _knew _as he had known other things in his life, that it had been drafted by his rival.  The CEO carefully slid the letter into his coat pocket.  He then surveyed his work, suddenly able to think clearly for the first time in days.  _I need a new deck and a strategy, _he thought quickly.  He rose from his chair and swooped into the outer portion of his office.

            "Sir?" his secretary said questioningly.

            "I'm taking a brief vacation," Kaiba said.  "If I encounter any problems when I get back, I will personally fire you.  Understood?"

            Kaiba's secretary blanched.  "Quite understood, sir.  Have a…fun…vacation."  She sounded slightly strangled.

            Kaiba savored an image of his rival, naked and beaten, screaming for mercy beneath him.  "Oh, I _shall!" he said, his eyes alight with frigid fire._

{****}

            Midnight lurked close about Domino Piers.  In a distant corner of the piers, garish yellow streets lamps illumined a deserted warehouse.  It was rusted from little use, with chipping paint and broken windows.  Clumps of weeds jutted out of the sidewalks, and the walls sported spray painted obscenities of all kinds.  

Kaiba approached with no fear of the darkness or the loneliness of the place.  He knew that Yugi, with his duelist honor to maintain, would not attack him, as tempting as the situation was.  Kaiba entered the gloomy warehouse, the beginnings of a smirk working its way up his face.  Already in his veins coursed the adrenaline that would give his strategy its unmistakable edge.  Kaiba clenched his fist and stalked further into the dim recesses of the warehouse.  He could make out five figures standing in the dull light of a hanging lamp.  Kaiba stopped and rubbed at his eyes.  Had he counted right?  Yugi had made it clear that Kaiba should come alone, so why had he invited other people?  Kaiba searched his mind, but could think of no reason for Yugi's doing so.  Finally he shrugged.  What did it matter, anyways?  _This victory shall be mine, Kaiba thought, sauntering to where the five figures stood.  _

He allowed his eyes to linger on each one of them to see if any of them posed a threat to him.  _The dog_, Kaiba thought in disgust.  The brown-haired girl who had reprimanded him for gambling with his own life in the duelist kingdom.  The dog's friend with the spiky brown hair and the brown trench coat.  Yugi himself, his violet eyes wide with worry about the coming battle.  

The fifth figure…  Kaiba squinted, not wanting to get any closer until he figured out just who it was.  The fifth figure had hair that spiked much in the fashion of Yugi.  However, he was taller than the boy, and his body was obviously that of a man.  Kaiba gasped.  Standing before him was the other Yugi!  "How?" the CEO whispered to himself.  For a moment he simply stared at the two boys, marveling at their differences in appearance alone.  He wondered vaguely how anyone could ever mistake one for the other.  Then Kaiba's heart began to beat faster.  Could it be…?  Yes!  The other Yugi had sensed his arrival.  He turned to face Kaiba, his eyes blazing.  Though he was inclined to take a step backwards, Kaiba forced himself forward.

"Yugi," he greeted the taller boy.   "Or how should I address you?  Since you really aren't Yugi…"  He allowed his eyes to linger on Yami's crotch pointedly.

"You can call me Yami," Yami said.

"Well then, Yami," Kaiba said.  Sapphire eyes locked with crimson.  "Shall we…begin?"

"Yes," Yami said.  He led Kaiba to a rickety wooden table marked for duel monsters.  Yami's companions moved silently into the darkness.

Kaiba reserved a look of contempt for the poor furnishings of the warehouse.  "I brought something for you."  He slammed Yami's deck down onto the table.  Its spindly legs creaked ominously.

Yami wordlessly took the deck and reached into his pocket.  "I have a few cards that I want to switch out," he said.  

"Go ahead," Kaiba said with a dismissive wave of his hand.

Once Yami had finished, he set the deck in front of him.  "This is the deciding duel," Yami said.  "There will be no interruptions from either side."

"Agreed," Kaiba said.

"But what are the terms of winning and loss?"  Yami leaned his elbows on the table and looked at Kaiba sidelong.  The spirit's voice was almost provocative.  "You have something that you want…"  Yami dropped his voice almost to a whisper.  Kaiba hung on to every word.  "But this time, I have something that I want...from you."

Kaiba leaned back and crossed his arms, comfortable in his role of the impassive CEO again.  "If you lose, Yami," Kaiba said with slow dispassion, "I want your body.  You will come to my mansion and live as my slave."

"Done."

Color flooded Kaiba's pale face.  His jaw dropped at the ease with which Yami had complied.

"However, Kaiba Seto…"  

Kaiba started at the sound of his name.

"If you are to lose this duel…" Yami trailed off just to make certain Kaiba was listening.  "I will require something of yours."

"And what," Kaiba asked in a patronizing tone, "might that be?"

Yami closed his eyes for a moment, summoning power to him.  A single golden eye shone on his forehead.  When Yami opened his eyes, the crimson and gold mingled, creating a startling effect.  Kaiba snapped to attention.  A slight tingling around his neck distracted him from Yami.  Kaiba looked down, noticing for the first time that he was sitting directly underneath a rafter.  A thick rope hung from the beam.  Though Kaiba knew that Yami had not budged from his chair, the rope had somehow gotten wrapped around his neck!  The eye upon Yami's forehead glinted a little brighter.  Kaiba felt the rope draw slack against his throat, exerting a gentle, but undeniable pressure.  Sweat formed at the CEO's temples, and a vein in his neck started pulsing wildly.  "What I require," Yami said smoothly, "is your life.  Or, in more accurate terms, your _death."_

Kaiba gave a strangled gasp.  "You mean you're going to _hang me if I lose the duel?" _

Yami leered at the CEO.  "This is no ordinary duel," Yami said, a trace of mocking in his voice.  "It is a dark game, the only kind suitable to settle an affair like ours.  "You can still back out, you know."

Kaiba remained silent for several heartbeats.  At last he spoke.  "I will _not _back down!" the CEO declared.

"I didn't think you would," Yami remarked.  "Do you have your deck?"

Kaiba drew it out with trembling hands.  He could no longer feel the rope around his neck, but he had no idea as to where it could have gone, either.  The situation was unnerving to say the least.  "Shall we cut the decks?" Kaiba asked.

"Yes," Yami said, reaching for Kaiba's deck.  

Kaiba felt a burst of energy flow through him.  It was as if when Yami had touched his deck, he had touched Kaiba himself.  _Much that is impossible this night has become possible, _Kaiba thought.  He wondered if he was getting in over his head.  Then he remembered his previous victory and its unmet conditions.  _I will not back down!  I shall claim what is rightfully mine: absolute domination!_

"Duel start!" Kaiba proclaimed with all the bravado he could muster.

{****}

            "Yami seems to be holding out pretty well, don't you think, Yugi?" Jounouchi asked.  The four friends had climbed the rusting warehouse stairs to the upper balcony.  From here they could have a bird's eye view of the game as it progressed.  Not that the view afforded them much knowledge by any means.  Unlike Kaiba and Pegasus, Yami had no technological gimmicks to spice up his duels.  Furthermore, the intimidating shadows made visibility sink to an all time low.  That left the option of watching the rivals as they laid their cards.

            Yugi shook his head.  Even separated from his other self, the link between their minds still existed.  Yugi knew that from the beginning, Yami had been wary of Kaiba, that his confidence, even cockiness was all part of a front.  He could also tell that maintaining the spell that kept the two of them physically separated was already taking its toll on Yami.  His thoughts were sluggish and slow to form.  Yugi wondered how this would affect his yami's strategy.  In short, there was much to worry about.

            "I don't get it," Anzu said.  "Why do the two of you have to be separated for this duel?"

            "It's true that Yami would duel better if he didn't have this spell on his mind _and the duel," Yugi admitted.  "But if he loses, he doesn't want me to get hurt because of him."  Yugi sighed.  "I wish that he could believe in himself once more.  If he did, we could still share one body and keep him from having to cast that difficult spell.  But…I can't lie about the fact that suffering for Yami's mistakes isn't something I would willingly do."_

            "Yugi," Jounouchi whispered, embracing him from behind in the dark.  "Yami will be fine.  You'll see."

            "Jounouchi," Yugi murmured.  _I sure hope he's right._

{****}

            "Yami!" Kaiba's shout raced to the farthest corners of the warehouse.  "This game will be my victory!  Prepare yourself!"  Kaiba placed one card face down.  "Pot of Greed allows me to draw two cards from my deck.  Now I send LaJinn out in attack – what in the hell?"

            When Kaiba had placed the LaJinn card on the table, he had not noticed any electrical wires near it, nor did he see any equipment of his or of Pegasus's that he recognized.  Why then, was the green genie of the lamp rising out of the card to stand at the ready on the table?  Color drained from Kaiba's face.

            "As I told you, Kaiba Seto!" Yami's voice was terrible and powerful.  "This duel is a dark game.  _How much_ of what you see and feel is real?" Yami questioned him.  "Deception is as powerful a tool what is real."

            "This monster…is it an illusion?" Kaiba demanded.

            "You'll find out soon enough for yourself, Kaiba," Yami thundered.  

            "Turn end!" Kaiba said, shifting his eyes warily.

            Yami set one card face down in the trap and magic card zone and another in the monster card zone.  "I play this monster in defense mode.  This ends my turn."

            Kaiba laughed, though it seemed a little forced.  "LaJinn!  Attack Yami!"

            As by reflex, Yami brought up both of his arms to shield his face.  However, it was Kaiba who incurred the blow.  Kaiba gasped at the very real pain he was experiencing.  A hairline cut opened on his face.  "How…?" Kaiba sputtered.

            Yami smirked.  "You attacked the Mystical elf.  Her holy defense easily smashes the darkness of LaJinn!"  The Mystical elf tossed her golden head proudly.

            Kaiba clutched his hand to his cheek.  When he brought his hand away, there was blood, very real, very salty on his fingers.  However, the CEO was in for another surprise.  At the center of the table, fiery lines formed the kanji for Kaiba's name.  Kaiba gasped as 4000, written in fire, appeared beneath his name.  The number burned out in a wreath of smelly smoke.  In its ashes, the number 3800 glowed brightly.  

            "Kaiba, you have sprung my trap!  Skull invitation!  Three hundred life points are deducted from the players' respective life points for every card that they send to the graveyard."  Out of the Skull Invitation illustration rose a horned skull, a devil with mad red eyes and wicked beckoning fingers.  Kaiba's life points sizzled, dropping to 3500.

Kaiba goggled at the dark magic at work.  However, Kaiba had not become CEO of his own corporation by being easily overcome by surprise.  He crossed his arms.  "Okay, Yami," he said.  "We'll see how you fare now that I've seen your cheap magic tricks!"  He covered one card in the magic-trap zone and placed one monster in face down defense mode.

Yami smiled like a patient magician waiting to spring his next trick on an unsuspecting audience.  "I will attack with the Goddess of Whim."

Kaiba sneered when he caught sight of the petite woman who had leaves for hair.  "Just desserts!"  The trap card opened with a creak like the rusty hinges of a treasure chest.  A ghostly white hand snaked out of the card and lazily circled the playing field.  Then it latched onto Yami's neck and began to throttle him.  Yami clawed at his throat, but his hand passed through Just Desserts as if it were made of smoke. At the center of the table, the kanji for Yugi materialized in blue flame.  4000 life points swiftly dropped to 3000 before the hand let go.  Yami slumped over, coughing and gasping for breath.

"I am also dropping the Mystical Elf down this trap hole," Kaiba said.  "So she won't be defending you any longer."  The golden-haired elf looked down at her feet, where a large hole had opened.  Darkness swallowed her scream.  "Oh yes, and one more thing," Kaiba said.  

Yami clenched his teeth.  

"I am flipping over Morphing Jar Number two.  All monsters on the field return to their respective decks.  The owners must shuffle the decks and then draw until they get monsters with the same number of stars as those that were returned.  Cards that aren't the correct level of stars go the graveyard."

Yami shuddered, looking at the Skull Invitation card.  It had turned from Kaiba and was beckoning to him now!  Yami shuffled his deck.  All the while he could feel his energies waning.  _It's the fault of that spell I cast, _he realized.  _I wonder how much longer I can last in this duel.  Will I be consumed in my own shadow?  Chills danced upon his flesh as he drew three cards.  None of them were three star-marked like the goddess of whim.  Yami drew again, hoping that the heart of the cards would come through this time.  However, the contrary heart of the cards answered his desperation with a fourth card he had to send to the graveyard.  Kaiba, who had only lost one card to the graveyard, watched Yami proceed with a measure of amusement.  On the fifth try, Yami pulled a three star card.  He heaved a sigh of relief and stacked the other cards in the graveyard.  Red and blue flames gleamed at the center of the table.  Yami's life points plummeted to 1800.  Kaiba, more fortunate, fell only to 3200.  The Skull Invitation devil locked eyes with Yami, seeming to say, __I smell your blood, and I hunger for more.  Fainter than before, Yami felt his resolve weakening.  __What if I blacked out in the middle of the duel… he wondered.  _I suppose that would seal my fate with Kaiba.  I must not let it happen!  I must not-  _His mind went fuzzy, and for a minute Yami could not focus at all.  When he was at last able to think normally again, he could not even remember what he had been thinking about so frantically the moment before.  Yami steadied himself using the table's edge and prepared for Kaiba's next onslaught._

{****}

            "Oh no!" Yugi whispered.  "This isn't good!"  He collapsed against Jounouchi, clutching at his head.  

            "What's wrong, Yugi?" Jounouchi gasped.

            "It's not me," Yugi said.  "It's _Yami!  The spell is starting to wear on him!  He might lose the duel because of it!"  Yugi could not keep his fear down any longer.  He began to weep as if nothing in the whole world could ever comfort him._

            "Yugi…"  Jounouchi knelt.  "You can't lose it now!  Yami needs for you to hold on!  Maybe if you can be strong despite what the spell is doing to him, he can draw on you for strength when his is gone."

            Yugi wiped at his eyes.  "Thank you, Jounouchi!  I'll try to be strong!"  Yugi squeezed his eyes shut, trying to infuse Yami with some of his own strength.  The ever-thickening webs of doubt spun throughout Yami's mind hindered the already difficult transfer.  Yugi's heart surged with simultaneous fear and resolution.  _Somehow I must make this work!  _

He found himself thinking of all he had at stake in this duel, his own sanity chief among them.  Yami's victory would save all of these things.  His loss would have severe consequences, some that Yugi already knew, and others, unknown and more far-reaching.

            He reached deep within himself to a core of power he had not thought existed and drew on it until he felt he would burst.  _Please Yami… he said through the link.  __You cannot lose!  _

{****}

            Yami jerked from the sluggish path his mind had taken.  He thought he had heard Yugi's clarion, sweet voice inside of his head.  "Aibou?" he whispered.  

            "Is your own darkness eating you alive?" Kaiba queried.  "I shall disarm the Skull Invitation Trap, though I daresay, my doing so will do _you_ more good than I."  The devil hissed as it vanished from the field.  Yami added the card to his graveyard.

Kaiba glanced through his cards.  "Or…perhaps not.  Final flame!"  The CEO slammed the card onto the table, which creaked dangerously.

A ball of fire formed in the air just at Kaiba's eye level.  It glinted like a dying star and sped towards Yami, growing as it streaked along.  Yami gasped.  His crimson eyes widened, shining like blood in the hellish light.  The fireball struck the game king in the chest and knocked him out of his chair.  Yami's head hit the floor with a crack.  His jacket smoked, forcing him to discard it.  The skin on his face was blistered and raw from the heat of the flame.  Yami shakily rose.  The shock seemed to have filled him with a new sense of purpose.  A hard new resolve shone in his eyes. "Kaiba, you will never win this duel," Yami declared.  

Kaiba laughed aloud.  "When I had that noose about my neck, I feared that might be the case.  But…now I see that you're little better than a cheap conjurer.  Once you start summoning real power, you can't even control it!"  As if to emphasize Kaiba's words, Yami's life points dropped to 1200.  "Perhaps when you are my slave I will show you the true meaning of power!"  As he spoke, Kaiba laid two cards face down.

Yami covered one card and placed one monster face down in defense mode.

"What a foolish waste," Kaiba observed.  The CEO flipped over Dust Tornado.  "In addition to destroying that trap card you just laid-"

"Magic card," Yami corrected him removing Fissure from the field.

"I can set a trap or magic card of my own.  And so I shall."

"Perhaps I shall follow your example," Yami said dryly, placing another card down.  "In the meantime, Kaiba, you will lose five hundred life points for every trap card and magic card that you have on the field."  Yami flipped over Princess Tsurugi.  Crystals as thin as sewing needles glinted in her hands.  She flung the shards at Kaiba's side of the field.  They cascaded in a silver shower and embedded themselves in the CEO's hands.  Kaiba cried out in surprise and attempted to jerk them out.  However, they melted into his skin like ice.  By the time he had finished tearing at his hand, even ripping the flesh in places with attempts to get the stinging slivers out, his life points were down to 2200.

Kaiba drew his card for the turn and glanced at it.  An eerie light kindled in his eyes.  "Yami…" he whispered.  "Your doom is starting to take shape."  So saying, Kaiba placed Soul Exchange on the field.  "I will trade the soul of Princess Tsurugi and one of my monsters to summon my servant."

Yami's face turned ashen.

"Come forth!  Blue Eyes White Dragon!" Kaiba flung up his arm.  Princess Tsurugi and Kaiba's monster – Cyber Jar – vanished from the field with sounds like the popping of balloons.  A blue light gathered at the point where the two souls met.  Like ripples, the light expanded with each vibration.  Finally it solidified, and the Blue Eyes White dragon stepped forth like a pillar of ice.  The beast's cry broke the silence of the warehouse, sending chills down Yami's spine.  Yami's eyes widened as the miniature beast stared him down.  The harsh blue of its eyes seemed to pierce Yami's soul.  "Monsters summoned by tribute cannot attack on the turn which they are called forth," Kaiba said.  "This ends my turn."

Yami reached into his deck, willing the heart of the cards to aid him.  Thus far the duel had progressed in a normal manner.  He could not discern whether or not the heart of the cards would grant him a miracle this time or not.  _I must have faith, he thought.  _When it is needed, it will come.  It _must!  At last Yami looked at the card he had drawn.  __Raigeki…  Numbly he placed the card on the field.  "I call on Raigeki, to smash your Blue Eyes White Dragon!"  Thunder rumbled above Yami; he could feel the vibrations rattling around in his chest._

"Not this time, you won't!"  Kaiba laughed and turned over his trap card.  "Magic drain," Kaiba intoned.  "If you have a magic card to discard, you can use Raigeki.  If not, Raigeki will be sent to the graveyard."

Yami flinched as he inspected his hand.  Not a magic card among them.  Clenching his teeth, Yami set Raigeki in the graveyard.  The rumbling of the thunder gave way to the silence of the warehouse once more.  _Is the heart of the cards mocking me? _Yami wondered.  Before his ominous thoughts could bear him away, he set one card face down and placed a monster card in covered defense mode.

"Getting desperate, are we?" Kaiba mocked.  "Attack him, Blue Eyes!"

"Your attack has no effect, Kaiba!" Yami said, turning over his trap card.  "I have the protection of Waboku!"

"So be it, Yugi."  Kaiba sneered.  "You won't be so lucky next time, however."  He placed a card of his own.

"You have no power to know that," Yami declared.  He drew a card and quickly glanced at it.  His heart beat a little faster.  _The Time Wizard…perhaps the heart of the cards is listening to me after all.  Renewed hope filled Yami.  "I will sacrifice Ruiz to bring forth Black Magician Girl!"_

"Idiot!" Kaiba scoffed.  "What do you hope to accomplish with _that?  She has no hope of standing up to Blue Eyes!"_

"Not on her own," Yami conceded.  "But with the power of the Time Wizard…"

"Dammit!" Kaiba swore as the clock magician materialized on the field.  "You're still playing with that loser's cards, I see."

"Time Roulette!" Yami shouted.  

The Time Wizard brandished his magic wand.  A circle marked with crowns and skulls materialized above him.  The needle began to spin.  Kaiba crossed his arms, though he watched the needle's progress closely.  Yami's stomach churned.  He knew well that he could be throwing away the game on a gamble.  _But, he reminded himself sternly, __I have faith in the heart of the cards this time!  I do!  It won't let me down!  _

{****}

            "Time Roulette!  Look, Yugi!" Jounouchi said, pointing at the whirling needle on the circle beneath them.

            "Your cards are still in there, Jounouchi?"  Yugi smiled weakly.  

            Jounouchi knew his friend was worried.  It showed in his face and in how quiet he had been throughout the duel.  "Hang in there, Yugi.  Yami's going to turn this whole thing around with that card!"

            "I hope so, Jounouchi," Yugi said.  "I hope so."

            "I know so," Anzu said.  "Yugi, it was you who taught Yami about the heart of the cards, wasn't it?"

            "Yeah," Yugi said.  "He used to fight using intimidation…and darkness."

            "Well, he's using Jounouchi's cards now, so that must mean that he's putting some trust into the heart of the cards again.  We must believe in him.  Come on Yugi!  Cheer up!" Anzu urged him.

            Yugi managed a half-hearted smile.  Her reasoning made sense.  Yet how could he trust again after the past month's succession of bitter disappointments?  Yugi leaned against the railing.  There was also the spell to consider.  Yugi wasn't certain if Yami was redirecting his negative emotions to Yugi so he could concentrate on the heart of the cards, or if he was simply experiencing Yami's feelings as they emanated from him much like heat from a fire.  Yugi shook his head to clear it.  _Anzu's right!  I can't let myself get bogged down!  He watched the needle of the time roulette board as it slowed to an almost hypnotic pace.  _You can do it, Yami!  You have to!  You just have to!__

{*********************************************************************************************************}


	21. The Second Duel Part II

Chapter Twenty: The Second Duel Part II

            Yami's gut clenched with the realization that the Time Roulette needle was slowing too rapidly to land on a crown.  As he watched it, his eyes widened.  Simultaneously, Kaiba's narrowed.  _He knows, _Yami thought in dread.  _He knows that this loss might well finish me!  Yami scrunched his eyes shut, allowing his own darkness to bear him away.  __It failed!  I gambled it all away on the Time Wizard!  Yet it seemed so reasonable…just like something I would do…in the old days!   Finally Yami gathered the courage to open his eyes.  The needle had indeed stopped upon a skull.  Yet at the same time, it was like the rest of time had stopped.  Kaiba sat as still as a statue, and the duel monsters on the field were frozen.  Yami noticed the way that the darkness hung off of the instant.  Then it struck him.  _Could this be…the heart of the cards' doing?  _He looked to the warehouse balcony.  Sure enough, Yugi was there with his friends.  Like Kaiba, the moment had reduced them to motionless figures.  Unlike Kaiba, however, a ghostly silver aura shone from them, forcing the darkness about them to retract.  The light emanated strongest from Yugi.  ___

Yami looked again at the Time Roulette board.  The silver light flashed in the needle, gently moving it from the bone-white of the skull to the blood-red of the crown.  Yami's heart soared.  Suddenly time's rapids began to flow again.  Shouts of "Yattta!" and "He did it!" came from the balcony.  Kaiba rubbed at his eyes.  "I could have sworn that needle was on a skull," he muttered.

            "The cards know best," Yami said, feeling good about saying it for the first time in weeks. 

            On the field, the Time Wizard wove a spell that illustrated the passing of time in the dramatic deaths of miniature stars.  They careened past Kaiba and Yami, burning out before they landed, smoking, on the warehouse floor.  When they cooled, they shone like smooth black pearls.  After the Time Wizard's spell was complete, Kaiba's dragon showed no sign of change.  However, Black Magician Girl wore the robes of a Sorceress.  A sky-blue hood concealed her face.  Her staff, rose quartz marbled with veins of blue, gleamed like a cold star.  "The Sorceress is the equal in power to the Blue Eyes White Dragon," Yami proclaimed.  Though his faith had been shaken before, he suddenly felt the old confidence returning to him.

            "Is that so?"  Kaiba began to laugh.  "On any other occasion, Yami, I might actually be _worried_."  The CEO played the Lord of D.

            "_What?" Yami gasped._

            "Behold, Yami."  Kaiba placed the Flute of Summoning Dragon.  "This is your _dirge!"  A trumpet blast reverberated in Yami's ears, ringing and shrilling almost until he could not stand it.  Murder shone in Kaiba's eyes.  "The mighty Sorceress might be able to withstand even the Blue Eyes White Dragon.  But…  How will she fare against __three?"  Two additional Blue Eyes White Dragons materialized on the field.  With brutal glee, Kaiba held up Polymerization so that Yami could not miss it.  "And…can her magic stand against the Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon?"  With that, Kaiba added Polymerization to the field.  The three Blue Eyes screamed as their limbs were melded together with bonds stronger than flesh and fire.  Kaiba surveyed their transformation with haughty pride.  "Yami," he said, his voice low.  "I am inclined to believe that the cards _do _have a heart.  One bitterly set against __you!"_

            Yami's eyes went wide with shock.  Numbed, he reached for his next card.  _Dark Hole…  Suddenly his shaken self-assurance returned, surging like the tide.  "Kaiba!  You're deceiving yourself if you think that the heart of the cards would ever work for one who acts out of greed!  I summon the darkness to swallow your Blue Eyes and with it, your vain pride!"_

            Kaiba regarded Yami coldly.  "Your spell exacts a price from you, too, Yami.  Your dearly-purchased Sorceress!"

            As the shadowy vortex swallowed Kaiba's Ultimate Dragon and Yami's Sorceress, Yami bowed his head.  "That _is true, Kaiba.  All things come with a price."  He placed a second magic card on the field.  "The price is not always unreasonable, however."_

            "Impossible!" Kaiba protested when he saw the card.  "Somehow it seems too much of a coincidence that you have Monster Reborn right there."

            "It is no coincidence, Kaiba Seto!" Yami's eyes seemed to drag Kaiba down into their crimson depths.  "This is the power of the heart of the cards!" he declared with new conviction.  "I now resurrect Black Magician Girl!"

            "You are a fool," Kaiba said with a bark of frantic laughter.  "Why choose her when you could have restored the Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon?"

            To this, Yami said nothing.  After the initial euphoria of having the heart of the cards working for him again, he could plainly feel his energies ebbing.  It would only be a matter of time before the spell wasted him.  _I must be strong! _he vowed.  _It will do no good to regain the heart of the cards and still lose the duel!  Though he knew this, trying to keep his energy from escaping was like telling the sand in an hourglass to stop its endless trickling downward.  "Black Magician Girl!  Attack Kaiba!  You have no monsters on your side of the field, so it will be a direct attack."_

            "Or perhaps it won't be," Kaiba said with a chuckle.  "Trap card open!  Magic Javelin!" 

            At the center of the table, Kaiba's life points, etched in red fire, surged to 4700.

            "Dammit!" Yami hissed.  His vision was starting to get fuzzy.  He could feel the emptiness in his limbs, which made them rubbery.

            "With the Shallow Grave, I will restore my Ultimate Dragon," Kaiba said.  "You, too, get to choose a poor monster to subject to my dragon's unbeatable power.  They will come to the field in the facedown defense position."

            Yami thumbed through his graveyard.  His breath was so shallow.  How could he think with his lungs on fire like this?  He reached out and grabbed the edge of the table to steady himself.  _Aibou…  _he thought._  Help me!_

{****}

            "Yami!" Yugi gasped.  He nearly fell forward, catching the railing just in time.  

            "What is it, Yugi?" Jounouchi asked him.

            "Yami's in trouble…"

            "It's that damned spell, isn't it?" Jounouchi snarled.

            "Yes," Yugi said.  "Jounouchi…  Please hold me up.  I'm going to try to send Yami more of my strength.  He _must win this duel!"_

            "Yugi…!"  Jounouchi hesitated.

            "Don't worry, Jounouchi.  I will be okay.  I promise."

            Biting off his useless anger at Yami, Jounouchi took Yugi into his arms.

            Once again Yugi closed his eyes.  His own power was at the breaking point, but there was too much at stake for Yami to lose the duel.  Yugi wanted his Yami to be victorious as much as he had ever wanted anything.  _Yami… _he pleaded, uncertain if his other self could even hear.

{****}

            When the ground finally stopped spinning, Yami opened his eyes.  In his trance, he had heard the voice of his aibou.  He hadn't been able to make out the exact words, but words weren't important in such exchanges.  They never had been.  Feelings, sensations, communication without words had always taken precedence.  Yami dimly remembered something that had stopped the dizziness.  Yami felt a sudden surge of shame.  _I was intent on doing this alone, _he thought.  _And now I need my other self to bail me out.  _He did not dwell on it long, however, for Kaiba was getting impatient.

            "Have you decided to surrender?" Kaiba asked.

            "Not until my absolute defeat!" Yami quickly flipped through his graveyard.  His fingers settled on the Time Wizard.  A warm sensation emanated from the card.  It simply felt _right to choose this one.  Yami hoped that the spell's repercussions weren't making him delusional and withdrew the Time Wizard._

            Yami set the Magician of Faith face down and flipped the card over.  "I restore Monster Reborn to my hand.  Now, as before, I shall use Time Roulette!"

            Kaiba and Yami watched the needle as if their very lives depended on where it fell.  After several swift revolutions, it slowed and landed on a crown.  The drama of the expanding universe, the life and death of stars played before the duelists once more.  The Sorceress stepped forth from the chaos.  "Now I use Ultimate Offering to call the Celtic Guardian to me."  Yami's life points dropped to eight hundred.  Celtic Guardian and Magician of Faith shall be sacrificed to summon the Red Eyes Black Dragon!"

Kaiba sneered.  "So long as you use the dog's cards, Yami, you are damned to lose like him."

Yami ignored him.  "In addition, I tribute the Time Wizard to call on the Summoned Skull.  With polymerization, I can merge the Red Eyes Black Dragon and the Summoned Skull to form the Black Demon Dragon!"

Midnight ink scales and ancient bones erupted with white radiance.  When the darkness once again descended upon the room, a ghastly figure towered over Yami's side of the board.  Armored scales plated the creature's reptilian body.  Down its back wound a hideous exoskeleton of raw bone.  Eager to kill, it tossed its horned head.

"Is that the best you can do?"  Kaiba yawned.

"There is one more thing," Yami said.  He flipped over one of his covered cards.  "Using Jounouchi's Grave Robber, I shall steal your Polymerization."

"What could you possibly have to fuse?"

"Polymerization shall now bring Sorceress and Black Demon Dragon together as one."  Yami felt the familiar sense of detachment as he spoke.  It was as if he was not really a part of making the miracles of the cards happen.  The blue-robed mage walked towards the dragon, which looked as if it would sooner tear her head off than combine bodies with her.  However, the beast bowed to her in a gesture of complete humility.  The Sorceress placed her hand upon the dragon's head.  Their outlines wavered like a disturbed reflection in a pond until they were finally so distorted that one couldn't tell where one ended and the other began.  

Kaiba goggled as the image cleared.  "Behold, Kaiba!  The Dragon Lady."  The merged sorceress and dragon bore an air of poisonous deadliness.  The Dragon Lady was clad in little more than living armor formed from rows of scales as black as death and long strands of snow-white bone.  Her helmet was a black dragon's head topped with white curved horns and tiny onyx wings.  Within the shadowy recesses of her ponderous helm, her eyes burned like crimson flame.  Her golden hair hung down her back, woven with ghastly strips of ribbon that looked like flesh.  Around her rose and crystal blue staff wound a thick fixture of torn, twisted bone.  The beauteous light pulsed, dimmed from within its prison.  The Dragon Lady stared at Kaiba defiantly, daring him to challenge her. 

"She has the power to overcome the Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon," Yami told Kaiba, "though doing so would destroy her as well."

Kaiba appraised the Dragon Lady with a critical eye.  "Yami, I applaud your efforts.  They are breathtaking, almost perfect.  But…"  Kaiba trailed off, a sinister note in his voice.  "You are still no match for me.  Resign yourself to your fate!"

 "Kaiba!  What are you talking about?"  He had received numerous threats from the taller duelist, but this one seemed different somehow.

Kaiba placed his card on the table, his eyes alight with strange fervor.

{****}

            "Yugi!  Are you okay?  Speak to me, Yugi!" Jounouchi pleaded with him.  As the duel had progressed Yugi's weight against the blonde boy had gotten heavier and heavier.

            Yugi managed to smile weakly.  "I'm okay."  His eyes narrowed.  "Something Kaiba did surprised Yami.  I wonder what it could be…"

            "Shouldn't we get closer if we want to see what's happening in the duel?" Honda suggested.

            "No!" Yugi shouted.  

            Jounouchi and the others started at the unexpected sound of his voice.

            "No," Yugi said more gently.  "Yami is dealing in darkness down there.  He doesn't want us nearer than this.  Any closer, and we would risk being caught in the illusion."

            "That doesn't leave us much choice," Jounouchi sighed.  

            Yugi closed his eyes again, leaning into the comfort of Jounouchi's body.  The darkness was vast and concealing and the duel below them so harrowing, so much so that he did not fear Yami's noticing in the least.  _I was able to send Yami power when he was on the verge of losing…  But…even now he's not ahead.  The strength I sent wasn't enough.  What more can I do?  Yugi reached deep within himself for the answers.  Then he realized in shock what he had been doing wrong.  __I only wanted Yami to win this duel because it would save me…I sent him power for my __sake.  But really, Yami needs power for his own sake.  He's the one that Kaiba is going to hurt if he loses!  Yugi's heart began to beat so fast that he could hardly see.  Tears filled his eyes as he realized that he not only wanted Kaiba to stop stalking him, but he also did not want Yami to get raped.  __Yami! The name of his other self filled his head until Yugi lost consciousness and knew nothing more._

{****}

            "I will play Time Bend," Kaiba proclaimed.

            "Time Bend?" Yami said, incredulous.

            "Evidently you've never heard of it," Kaiba said, his amusement increasing.  "It is a continuous magic card that allows me to call on a card from the past to fight for me in the present."

            Yami stared at Kaiba without understanding what he was saying.

            "Allow me to demonstrate," Kaiba said.  "Come forth, Blue Eyes White Dragon!"

            _Impossible! Yami thought.  _Kaiba has three blue eyes white dragons already in play!  The only three in the world!__

            A ghostly card materialized in Kaiba's outstretched hand.  The CEO snatched it from the air and placed it on the field.  Yami leaned closer to look at it.  His heart plummeted to his feet.  Down the center of the card ran a jagged rip.  Yami suddenly recalled another duel with Kaiba.  Before the duel had started, Kaiba had torn the blue eyes white dragon – one of four in the entire world – in half and flung the pieces away.  Yet the card had miraculously appeared here.  The Blue Eyes that emerged was transparent.  A rip ran down its stomach.  Within the tear pulsed all colors of the rainbow, like the back of a compact disc.  Suddenly Yami understood the exact meaning of Time Bend.

            "Kaiba," he said.  "Is that the Blue Eyes that you tore in two?"

            "It is," Kaiba answered.  "Using Time Bend prevents me from attacking this turn.  However, my next turn will seal your doom, Yami."

            Yami tensed as he drew his next card.  _Hoshiningen…  He looked through his hand.  Then, with grim resolve, he added Hoshiningen to the field in face down defense mode.  "I play Opposite Polarities."_

            Kaiba's face went livid.

            "Do you know that all living things have an essence to them, Kaiba Seto?" Yami intoned.  "This essence is the very basic blueprint of who a person or thing is.  For example, the Blue Eyes White dragon is a light monster.  Its inherent attribute is holiness.  The opposite of blessed light is sinful darkness."

            "No!" Kaiba whispered.

            "Opposite Polarities will change all the Blue Eyes White Dragons' purity to shadow!  By the same token, the Dragon Lady, formed of a Black Magician, a summoned demon, and a black dragon, a woman baptized in three-fold shadow, will become the holiest being ever in Duel Monsters!"

            Kaiba gasped as a mirror rose from the Opposite Polarities Card Yami had played.  The dragons' reflections tarnished, becoming foul, rotten, and dark.  Four sets of frigid blue eyes faded to chill gray, while vibrant white scale armor withered to black.  A stench rose from the majestic creatures, now slumped over, their claws twisted like the limbs of tortured trees.  Kaiba's face went ashen as the transformation overcame the servants dearest to his heart.  

            On the other side of the field, the Dragon Lady was undergoing her own transformation.  Her bone and black scale armor glimmered, becoming plates of diamond.  The tangled bone prison that surrounded her staff vanished, allowing the rose and sapphire to shine as brightly as stars in a clear sky.  Her helmet fell away, becoming a circlet of pink flowers that danced atop her free-floating golden hair.  Her feet were bare.  "She is the Bringer of Light!" Yami proclaimed.

            "Now I will activate Hoshiningen's power.  It will increase the attack power of monsters with the Light attribute by five hundred.  Monsters with a dark attribute will decrease by four hundred points.  Let the Light be empowered and the darkness weakened!"  Yami turned Hoshiningen face up.  The once-proud Blue Eyes White Dragon screamed as its strength leaked from it.  Meanwhile, an exquisite white light descended upon the Bringer of Light.  Her staff shone with such radiance that it lit the warehouse as brightly as day.  "Bringer of Light!  Dispatch the Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon!" Yami commanded.

            The Bringer of Light knelt, both hands around her staff.  The blinding white light washed over the Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon like the surging ocean tide.  The three heads of the Blue Eyes screamed in unison.  Nonetheless, they could not halt their fate.

            At the center of the table, Kaiba's life points dropped to 3800.  The CEO hurriedly set a card face down and put the spectral Blue Eyes White Dragon in defense mode.  "Your turn, Yami."  His voice trembled ever so slightly.

            "I use the Mystical Space Typhoon to destroy the card you just laid," Yami said.  Kaiba cursed as he deposited Mirror Force in the graveyard.  "Now with Stop Defense…your Blue Eyes White Dragon is no more."  The Bringer of Light pointed her staff at the ghostly dragon and whispered words that sounded oddly like comfort.  The disgraced Blue Eyes bowed its darkened yet proud head.  In this humble manner, Kaiba's last Blue Eyes perished.

            Kaiba's life points dropped again, this time to 1900.  However, the CEO did not appear defeated yet, only infuriated at the humiliation he had endured.  "I use Time Bend to call back the Blue Eyes White Dragon!"

            "Even if you do so, it will return as a being of darkness," Yami reminded him.  "So long as opposite polarities stands upon the field."

            "Blue Eyes – defense position!" Kaiba commanded.

            "Since you are so fond of Time in this battle, Kaiba, you will be interested in this next card I am about to play," Yami said.  "Time Freeze.  It is not continuous, but that is hardly of consequence.  Because of this card, you will skip your turn."

            "Dammit!" Kaiba hissed.

"Despell!"  Yami destroyed Kaiba's Time Bend.  Kaiba's Blue Eyes White Dragon, as stubborn as its master, faded in and out several times as if it were fighting to remain alive.  Finally it vanished from the field.  "Kaiba, this duel is finished.  _You are finished," Yami said gravely.  _


	22. An Act of Mercy The Silent Gods

Chapter Twenty-One: An Act of Mercy.  The Silent Gods.

"Bringer of Light, attack Kaiba's life points directly!"

            The Bringer of Light drew on her power, sending it crashing into Kaiba.  His life points plunged to zero.  When the CEO could scream no more, Kaiba collapsed to the ground clawing at his neck and frantically gasping for air.  As his eyes opened wider to receive the light of eternity, the eye of Horus gleamed upon Yami's forehead.  The illusion grew in proportion to Kaiba's fear, becoming more realistic and complex as his belief in it increased.  Tears filled his blue eyes and spilled from his cheeks.  Memories of his life began to flash through his mind as the illusion became real.  Red marks appeared on his neck where the tightening noose had cut him, and his breathing became labored.  

Though he yearned to look away, Yami could not.  Kaiba's memories began to flash before his eyes too.  The ancient spirit recoiled at what he saw.  

From the moment Seto walked into Domino's orphanage with his younger brother, Mokuba, it was obvious that the world he had entered was one in which power frequently dominated, while the heart was suppressed.  Those weak of will and muscle fell by the wayside.  Though Seto did not realize it, these early days helped augment his later ruthlessness and ferocity.  

Eventually, on account of his quick wits and audacity, Seto was adopted by Kaiba Gozaburou (1).  Once Seto left the orphanage as Kaiba Seto his views of power did not change.  Even in Kaiba Gozaburou's rich world, the meek did not survive.   Kaiba Gozaburou did nothing to discourage these views.  In fact, his ruthless methods of teaching the boy further ingrained them into him.  Kaiba Seto learned from his father to destroy smaller companies, making them the sacrifice to further the goals of the larger cooperation.  He followed in his father's footsteps, firing employees, exploiting others, and asserting his power over everyone he met.

As Yami tried to banish the images from his mind, Kaiba's voice echoed in his mind.  _The cards are power!   Power!  No heart exists in them!  _

At last Kaiba Seto's desire for power bested his control.  Even after Kaiba Cooperation had climbed to the pinnacle of success, surpassing all others in riches and ruthlessness, even after being declared as one of the world's renowned duelists, Kaiba was still discontent.  The power hunger inside of him drove him to seek further conquests.  Yami, as Kaiba's rival, became the center of the CEO's otherwise conquered universe, a final obstacle that could not be ignored.  Unlike the other things Kaiba had sought to overcome, however, Yami had stood firm.  For that reason, Kaiba had wanted to crush him beyond recovering.  

Throughout Kaiba's life, he denied that heart existed alongside power in all things.  It seemed that his quest for power had overcome his capacity to even recognize the heart and its components such as mercy and compassion.  However, within Kaiba's accumulated darkness shone a glimmer of light.  Kaiba's ability to act selflessly manifested through his love for his younger brother, Mokuba.  As a child, Kaiba stood up to the bullies that plagued Mokuba.  When he challenged Gozaburou to the rigged chess game, he demanded that Mokuba be adopted too.  Even as a young self-made billionaire, Kaiba stayed with his brother, caring for him as a father might have. 

_Kaiba has the potential to overcome his fanatical pursuit of power, _Yami realized.  _If he could just understand that there is heart in all things just as there is power…  It is power that protects the heart!  His love for Mokuba means that he is capable of understanding such a thing…was__ capable of understanding…  Yami suddenly remembered that the completion of the illusion would end in Kaiba's death or insanity.  Most likely insanity since the CEO had such a strong will._

_You had no choice…Kaiba.  _Pity welled up in the spirit's heart and overflowed for the ruins of the man Kaiba Seto.  Then the spirit understood what his own heart was trying to tell him.  _Power became the focus of Kaiba's life… just as it almost became mine before Yugi showed me otherwise. If Kaiba's life were nearly taken and then returned to him, perhaps, just perhaps he would see past the walls he has built in his own shuttered heart.  Exerting all his will, Yami forced the illusion to taper off and die._

            Kaiba opened his eyes slowly and felt his neck, where the strangling rope had left its mark.  The CEO looked at Yami.  "You have won, Yami.  Why did you not take my life?  It was what you wanted at the start of this game."

            Yami fell silent.  

            "It sounds very strange," Kaiba said.  "But then again, this has been an odd night and a bizarre game."  He looked at the dueling table.  The cards lay flat and dull.  Their luster had died; no magic remained with them.  Even the eye of Horus had winked out from Yami's forehead.  The dust in the far corners of the warehouse remained still.  "I felt the noose go about my neck…and as my final breaths left my body, I was able to remember…much farther back than I ever thought I could.  I saw things at the very beginning…and I remembered…something that I have forgotten for a long time…"

            "I know," Yami said, overcome.  "You saw past the search for power that has blinded you for so long…to the heart of things."

            Kaiba nodded as if to agree with Yami.  Then he started.  "_Teme," (2) he muttered.  "It's not your place to pry into other people's memories."_

            "Believe me, if I'd had a choice, I'd have looked the other way," Yami remarked.  "Then I could have finished killing you."

            "Too bad you were too damn weak."  Kaiba smirked, fingering the red welt that wrapped around his throat.  He rose in a swirl of midnight blue coattails.  "You're sparing me my life, aren't you?  You, my greatest rival…"  Kaiba sounded as if he could hardly believe it.

            "No, actually," Yami said, rising.  "I _have killed you in a sense.  I have destroyed your old ruined self that could not see that power and heart actually go hand in hand."_

            Kaiba, his old memories still fresh, turned back to Yami.  "Don't expect to see me around…  You are still my greatest rival.  But…not in the way you were before.  Things are much…clearer now."

            Yami watched Kaiba walk away until the CEO vanished into the darkness.  He then mounted the stairs that led to the balcony, where his friends had all watched the duel with such anticipation.  As he neared the top of the stairs, he heard crying.  _Anzu…  _

Suddenly Jounouchi grabbed his arm and dragged him the rest of the way up the steps.  "Yami!" Jounouchi snarled.  "Damn you to hell!  How could you let Kaiba walk out like that?"

"He won't be bothering Yugi anymore," Yami said tersely, the blonde's hysteria grating on him.  "I can guarantee that.  I just wonthe duel."

"_Fuck the duel!" Jounouchi raged.  "What good is the duel if Yugi doesn't live to see the outcome of it?"_

"Doesn't live?" Yami could not make himself understand the words.  Then a shock hit him like a flood of icy water.  "What has happened to aibou?" he demanded.

"He was 'lending you energy' so you could keep dueling.  _You never stopped taking, so he keeled over!  This is all your fault!"  Jounouchi tore away from Yami, his furious motions whip-like in the dark.  He took Yugi's deadweight from Honda's arms.  "We have to get him to a hospital!"_

Frantic, Yami felt for the link between him and Yugi.  Solid unconsciousness buzzed through it.  Panic crashed through Yami's limbs.  He remembered well how much effort it had taken to stop the illusion from taking Kaiba's sanity and possibly his life.  _Ye myriad gods, Yami thought.  _Have I sacrificed Yugi's life to save my greatest rival?  __

{****}

            In the light of the hospital, garish after the dim dueling arena, Yugi's face was ashen.  His skin was as cold as ice, and his breathing was so shallow that it was almost imperceptible.  The doctors claimed that Yugi was suffering from exhaustion and possibly numerous other complications.  "If they only knew!" Jounouchi had seethed when they were out of earshot.  The doctors recommended that Yugi rest for the night.  When he awakened and proved that he had regained strength, they would run various tests.  Of course, if his condition did not improve in due time, life support and further analysis would become necessary.  

"This had better not be permanent," Jounouchi snarled at Yami before the doctors shooed him out to the waiting room.  Yami had managed to pass himself off as Yugi's older brother, and thus, got to stay in the hospital room with him.  Helpless and frustrated, he stared at his aibou's sleeping face.  Sometimes he would hold Yugi's hand, trying not to feel the bitter chill emanating from it.  Other times he spoke to Yugi about the duel and how life would be much better for both him and Kaiba now that it was over.  As dawn drew closer, Yami's energy dwindled.  He had put a block between his and Yugi's minds so that neither of them would feed off of one another's energy.  Yami knew that the spell to keep them separated would wear soon.  He prayed that Yugi would wake up before then so they could be on their way.  Yami did not want to face Jounouchi if the spell gave out while he was around.  Yami also found time to think.

            _Aibou…Kaiba and I are more alike than you could ever imagine.  We both focus on one thing and forget everything else, even when those other things are important.  I wanted to protect you, and I focused on it so much that I forgot about your happiness.  We are bound by ties stronger than blood.  We are brothers eternal.  I cannot bear to watch you suffer.  Yet even admitting this, I am in the wrong.  Because once again I am making this all about me, instead of whom it should concern – you!_

Several hours passed in which Yami dozed, Yugi's icy little hand in his own.  Jounouchi's arrival for visiting hours awakened the spirit.

            "Yami," Jounouchi greeted him with no trace of his previous aggression.  The blonde looked terrible.  His hair was disheveled.  Dark circles stood out under his eyes like bruises.  He had not changed his clothes from the previous night.

            Yami looked with dismay to the blood red rays of the sun that were streaming in through the blinds.  His time as a corporeal being was growing short, and still, Yugi had not roused.

            "You're really worried about him, aren't you?" Jounouchi said.

            "Well, of course," Yami said indignantly.  "We are…brothers eternal," he added, his mind still fogged from sleep.

            "Brothers eternal, huh?" Jounouchi echoed.  He placed his warm hand atop Yami's, managing to smother both the spirit's and Yugi's.  "Your hand is as cold as Yugi's.  You should get some rest," Jounouchi suggested.

            "I did," Yami protested.  "I would have kept on dozing if not for you.  Maybe you should take your own advice, Jounouchi.  You look…horrible."

            "Aw, shut up!"  Jounouchi laughed, giving Yami and Yugi's hands a squeeze before letting go.  Neither Yami nor Jounouchi said anything for the remainder of his visit.  They remained motionless in the sterile, timeless hospital world, side by side, yet worlds apart.  Finally the time came for Jounouchi to leave.  He rose in silence, not wanting to strain relations between him and Yami any further.  The blonde sneaked a glance at Yami.  The spirit was slouched in the plastic hospital chair, his hand in Yugi's.  The twilight cast the two of them in breathtaking shadow and light; they were so still that they were almost statuesque.  Jounouchi felt sorrow building in his chest.  He left before Yami could see his tears.

            Yami could not stop himself from thinking how helpless and frail Yugi appeared, a child in a vast hospital bed meant for an adult.  "Happiness, sorrow, fortune…all of it together…  Our lives are intertwined in ways more numerous than we could ever guess…"  As the last of the light died, Yami at last broke down.  He bent double, weeping, to his shame, like a woman.  "Aibou…please forgive me!  I never tried to understand!  I didn't listen when I should have!  I…"  He poured out a litany of sins, real and perceived.  When he had done with that, Yami wept anew, spiraling into abject misery.  "Forgive me my cowardice, _mou hitori no ore_.  Oh please, ye myriad gods!  Do not punish Yugi for my sins!  _Onegai_!(3)"  The gods did not answer.  Yugi slept on.

{*********************************************************************************************************}

The guy who adopted Seto and made him a Kaiba…  The reason I stuck this note in here is because I don't know if the dub has a name for this guy, and I didn't catch it off of the subs…I found it at a site in Kaiba Seto's character profile. Something like "you fucker" or "you asshole".  Some sort of "you" expletive.  You decide. "Please"  Fairly formal way to say it as I understand it. 


	23. Resolutions in Moonlight

Epilogue: Resolutions in Moonlight

Yami wandered through a sea of infinite darkness where he could feel nothing, see nothing, hear nothing.  It was a terrible, lonely place.  What was more, it was familiar to him.  Groggily he remembered some of what had happened in the waking world.  His aibou had fallen protecting him, unworthy as he was.  Yami's chest burned with fierce agony.  _Is this the darkness to which I subjected him?_ the spirit wondered.  Enraged beyond measure, he began to sprint through the gloom.  The sensation was an eerie one, for though he was running, his hair did not stir from his forehead.  His coattails remained as still as if he were stationary.  He had the wild idea that he would find Yugi somewhere in the fathomless veils of shadow.  However, darkness gave way to more darkness, leaving him with no way to measure his progress.  At length, Yami hunched over clutching his side.  _Is this death?  Is this what I will perceive through the link now?  This enormous plain of…nothingness?  "No!" Yami whispered, refusing to believe, even though his heart had accepted the matter as truth.  Suddenly a sound broke through the blackness.  _

"Yami!  Yami!"  A shout, calling his name.  It was his name, and yet it was not.  Yami started, nonetheless.  He strained his eyes to see past the darkness.  However, it lingered, thickly inscrutable.  Silence drummed in his ears.  _My imagination, he concluded.  _No, my most desperate wish.  _He resigned himself to remaining in the darkness, numb in the void.  He knew that even these brief moments would seem precious when guilt made its impact and began to devour him from the inside out._

"Yami!" the clear voice again split the darkness.  

Hoping against hope that he had really heard it, Yami called back.  "Aibou?"

"Yami!"  The voice sounded relieved.  

Yami could feel his grip on his thoughts slipping.  The mysterious curtains of endless darkness parted, one after another.  Yugi's voice grew louder and louder until…

{****}

Yami opened his eyes with a gasp.  The hand in his had moved!  He was certain of it.

"Yami…"  That gentle voice…  Yami hardly dared to hope as he looked at his aibou's face, younger than his, yet already darkened in death's shadow.  To the spirit's amazement, Yugi's eyes were marvelously open and upon his own.  "How long have you been here, Yami?" Yugi whispered.

Yami did not even hear the question.  "Aibou!"  Yami gasped and crushed Yugi to him.  "Thank the gods!" the spirit whispered, tears upon his cheeks.

Yugi hesitated and then clamped his own arms around Yami.  "I am sorry to have worried you so selfishly.  I wanted you to win the duel more than anything."

"Yes, I know," Yami said weakly.  "Aibou, forgive me!" he cried.

Yugi drew back from their embrace, regarding Yami in absolute bafflement.  Gently, the petite boy reached out and wiped Yami's tears from his cheeks.  "I don't understand," Yugi whispered.

In that next hour, Yami poured out the torments of his heart to his other self.  Yugi listened intently.  His violet eyes seemed wider with the deep shadows beneath them.  Despite this mark of his suffering, his eyes were as bright as ever.  

"Aibou…  I have been a selfish fool.  It was because of me that you nearly met your demise.  It is my fault that we have been so miserable after the fiasco with Kaiba.  As your guardian, I have done my duty in keeping you safe.  But…in another respect, I have failed.  I thought always of myself and took for granted, the perfect balance between us.  When that balance was disrupted, I tried to restore it by myself, something impossible to do.  I did not once consider you, or your feelings.  Even when I started to realize the truth, I allowed my old feelings to rise and consume me.  As a human, you are a being subject to change.  Yet I did not allow you that…  Your becoming a whole person, though it is a wonderful thing, has upset the balance between us.  No longer are we half and half fitted perfectly together.  We are a whole being – you- and part of a being - me.  I -"

"Yami…"  Now Yugi had tears in his eyes.  "Between us there is nothing to forgive."

"_Arigatou, aibou," Yami murmured.  He looked down at his hands, which shone with golden radiance.  The sparkle had caught Yugi's attention too._

"Yami, what is happening to you?" Yugi asked.  His eyes were wide.

"The spell I cast to separate the two of us will only last for forty-eight hours.  After that time, it will fade and I will become a spirit again."  

Yugi gasped.  "You never told me!"

"I'm sorry," Yami said, his head bowed.  "I thought it better that no one know but me.  There is something I must tell you before I completely vanish.  I said that from this moment forward, I will act for your sake…as I am supposed to.  You are precious to me, Yugi.  Once the spell wears off, I will sleep for at least three days…maybe more.  You must not worry about me."  Yami trailed off.  Already his mind was growing hazy.  He felt as if he would topple off of his chair.  The blood red light of the sunset danced in his eyes between the spaces in the blinds.

Yami examined his hands, which were slowly drizzling a trail of star-like particles.  His fingers already were transparent.  His strength was going faster than he had anticipated.  

"Yami!" Yugi protested.  "But-"

Yami put a finger to his lips.  "Don't worry, aibou."  

 "Wait Yami!" Yugi begged him.

"What is it, aibou?"

"Who won the duel?" 

Yami smirked.  "Why, I did, of course.  Did you ever doubt that I would?"

Yugi took the spirit's transparent hand in his.  His gentle, reassuring smile was the last Yami saw of him before he faded completely.  

  Yugi put his other hand on the Sen Nen Puzzle.  Suddenly its weight did not seem so cumbersome.  His eyes misted over again, but before he could cry, the door banged open.

"Yugi!" Jounouchi shouted.  The blonde flung his arms around Yugi in a bone-crushing hug.  They remained this way for several minutes.  Finally Jounouchi said, "Where's Yami?"

"He's back in the puzzle, Jounouchi," Yugi said.

"What?!  How in the hell did that happen?" Jounouchi demanded.

"Sit down.  I have a few things to tell you…"  

Jounouchi did not sit down, but remained standing, hanging on to Yugi's hand as if he feared that he would slip away from him again.

Yugi blushed, wondering where to start.  "To begin with, the spell that Yami cast to separate the two of us wasn't really permanent.  It was only meant to last for forty-eight hours."

"What?" Jounouchi gasped.  "Why didn't he tell us?"

Yugi shrugged.  "Maybe he forgot.  He was really broken up about what happened to me…"  Yugi trailed off.  Jounouchi moved a little closer, resting his head on Yugi's shoulder.  Suddenly the door swung open and smashed into the wall.  Jounouchi jumped up like a singed cat.  Yugi's heart pounded as it had not since Kaiba had broken into his house.

"_Yugi!"  A scratchy voice, furious and familiar._

"Grandpa," Yugi said weakly.  "I was just going to call you," he lied, hoping in vain to appease him.

The old man's wrinkled face was as purple as a plum.  "Do you have any idea how worried I have been?" Sugoroku growled.  "I have been searching for you since yesterday!"

Jounouchi looked as if he wanted to melt into the wall and drift away.  Yugi crept back along the hospital bed until his back hit the headboard.

"I called the police when I realized that you were gone from the house in the middle of the night.  Do you know what they did?  They told me not to call again.  Said something about senile old men…"

Yugi cringed.  So the dispatcher from before hadn't been lying when he said the police would not help the Mutou family.

"I came to this very hospital, but no one under your name had checked in."

"What time did you look for me?" Yugi asked.

"_Four in the morning!" Sugoroku put his hands on his hips.  "I thought someone had swooped down and carried you away.  Do you have any idea what that did to me in _here_?" he thumped his chest vigorously._

Yugi did not say anything, figuring it would be best to ride out the tirade before he attempted to defend himself.

"It nearly killed me!  Me!  As hearty and hale as I am…  But where was I…"  Sugoroku thought for a minute.  "Oh yeah.  So I went back home and called Honda, Jounouchi, and Anzu's houses."

_I bet they appreciated that, _Yugi thought.

"None of them were home!"  Sugoroku noticed the distant gaze in Yugi's eyes and stomped closer to the bed.  "So I guess you all think you're pretty clever taking off at that ungodly time of the night.  It took me until twenty minutes ago to get Anzu on the line!  After which, I came straight here!"  Sugoroku fell silent for a minute.  "Yugi, I am more angry with you than I can remember being." 

Yugi bit his lip.  For his grandpa, that was a considerable amount.

"But I am glad that you are safe."  With that, the old man enfolded Yugi in a hug.  Yugi wrapped his arms around Sugoroku's comforting, familiar frame.  When they broke away, Sugoroku wiped at his eyes and cleared his throat.  "Also, Yugi, once you get discharged from this hospital, you are grounded indefinitely!"

Yugi groaned.  In the corner, Jounouchi snorted.

That sentence delivered, Sugoroku regained his customary sunny – if slightly scatter-brained – smile and produced his deck of duel monsters from the front pocket of his overalls.  "Shall we have a duel, Yugi?"

Yugi smiled weakly.  "I've had enough of duels for a while, Grandpa.  Why don't you and Jounouchi play?  I'll watch."

{****}

            Yugi was discharged from the hospital three days later.  He had passed all of the tests they had wanted to run with flying colors.  The doctors were mystified, but Yugi's rapid resurgence of strength could not be denied.  Jounouchi and Sugoroku came on the third day to take Yugi home.  

            Sugoroku decided two weeks without television, friends, and telephone calls – and a healthy amount of extra work would be more than sufficient for Yugi's grounding.  "That's merciful, considering the pain you put me through," he said throughout that time period.  Though at first Yugi was downcast, even irritable about his punishment, he later took to teasing Sugoroku about dueling to reduce his punishment.  "If I win, you can reduce the punishment by one day," Yugi would say.

Sugoroku would narrow his eyes and lean his chin on his hands as if he were actually considering the rather ridiculous proposal.  Then he would smile toothily at Yugi.  "If you lose, Yugi, you can _add_ two days!"  Then the two of them would laugh as if Yugi had never been grounded at all. 

On the afternoon of the sixth day, Yugi sat at his desk gazing wistfully out the window.  Just outside, life was carrying on without him.  He wished that he could leave the house or at least call someone on the phone.  Anything to end this lonely isolation in which his punishment had entrapped him.  He sighed, not noticing that Yami had materialized. 

 "Aibou," Yami greeted his hikari.  "It's so good that you're out of the hospital."

"Not as good as you might think," Yugi replied.  "Grandpa grounded me for sneaking out of the house at midnight."

Yami looked at Yugi very strangely.  "Is that so?  You know, Yugi, I have envied you for some time now."

"Huh?"  Yugi stared at Yami.

Yami's crimson eyes became serious, even grave.  "You consider this time period your home, the place where you have your friends and your ambitions…"  

Yugi gazed at Yami in sympathy.  "It's okay, Yami.  I know that you're a spirit, but you're one of us.  You are-"

"Please don't make it harder for me to say this, aibou," Yami said, his eyes filled with pain.  "I never told you this…but there is another spell that works almost as the one I cast for the duel.  However, it will separate us permanently."

Yugi gasped.  "There is?"

Yami stared at the floor awkwardly.  "Yes.  I am sorry for not telling you sooner.  Since I learned of it, I have debated whether or not I would use it if I managed to defeat Kaiba." 

Yugi's eyes grew wide, as if a disturbing thought had just occurred to him.  "Yami…  You told me that you won the duel.  What happened to Kaiba?"

For a long minute, Yami did not answer.  "It was the strangest thing.  I planned the duel so that each of us would have a spoil.  In Kaiba's case, he would get to rape me…for the rest of my conceivable existence if it interested him for that long.  I opted to end his life."

Yugi gaped at his yami's nonchalant tone.  "You mean…if Kaiba lost, you were going to _kill_ him?"

"_Were," Yami emphasized.  "I think there is more of you in me than either of us could have guessed.  When Kaiba's loss was complete, I was fully prepared to destroy him.  However, his life flashed before his eyes…and my eyes."  Yugi listened spellbound as his yami recounted what had happened.  "And I saw that Kaiba has spent his life trying to accumulate power.  He had to suppress his own heart to survive.  However, he could not do it completely.  There is one for whom he still cares: his younger brother, Mokuba.  When I saw that aspect of him, I thought of us.  Like Kaiba, I had power…that of shadow…  If not for you, I would have forgotten the heart that power protects.  I could not see this and still kill him.  And thus, I chose to have mercy and spare him his life."_

Yugi gasped.  "Yami…"  His smile of approval warmed the spirit inside.  "You made a good gamble.  He hasn't called once since I've been home.  In the old days, the phone would have rung at least once now."

Yami smiled.  "He and I are still rivals.  But now that he has a broader perspective on his life, I doubt that it will be quite the same."

"I'm sure it won't," Yugi agreed.

"You know…"  Yami reluctantly returned to the subject of the permanent spell.  "I cannot deny that were I to separate from you permanently, you would, undoubtedly be the richer for it.  I, on the other hand, am not from this time.  I fear that I would be unable to live in it as you do…  Yet…"  He remembered his thoughts from another night as clearly as if he had just formed them.  "It can no longer be about me.  It must be about _you!"  Yami drew courage from his growing conviction.  "My role as your guardian is no longer necessary or evensuitable as it was before.  I think we are both aware of it.  You are a whole person now, which throws off the balance.  Yet I fear being my own person.  In this time, I have no purpose, no mission if I am not your guardian."_

"Yami!" Yugi said fiercely.  "There is no reason to be afraid!  I would never leave you!  Neither would Anzu, Honda, or Jounouchi!"  His face was so earnest, so bent on what he was saying that Yami felt his love for his pure, sweet aibou growing.  

  "Arigatou, aibou," Yami whispered.  "I wish I could be half as brave as you, Yugi," he confessed.  "Dreading insignificance, I hid in your body, playing at being your guardian when that wasn't what you needed anymore…  I can be there for you like your friends…like your brother, helping from without rather than from within.  Perhaps if I can no longer live your life, perhaps if I am forced to live my own, I will uncover that purpose I have sought for so long…from the safety of your body"  He bowed his head.  

Yugi forgot his own troubles as Yami spoke of his internal conflict.  His heart went out to the spirit.  "I'm sure you will," Yugi said gently.  "You're here, so you must have a purpose hidden somewhere in this era!"

"Maybe you're right."  Yami smiled with a rare gentleness.  "The spell requires a full moon to be cast correctly.  You _do want me to cast it, don't you?"_

"Yes!" Yugi said, nodding vigorously.

Yami sighed.  "I am surprised you aren't furious with me…  You might be after I tell you this.  Even knowing of your love for Jounouchi, I held back this spell from you."

Yugi gasped.  A blush stained his wan cheeks.  He wondered how Yami had known.  Then Yugi understood that it was no longer important.  The point was that Yami was no longer being destructively overprotective. 

"In the old days, I would have forbidden that you return his feelings," Yami admitted.  "But now that I have almost lost you from my own selfishness, how can I deny you such happiness?"  

Yugi grinned so happily that Yami felt a smile creeping onto his own face.  He crept out into the hallway and looked both ways for Sugoroku before picking up the phone and dialing. 

"What are you doing, aibou?" Yami asked him.

"Be quiet!" Yugi whispered.  "Grandpa grounded me for two weeks with no phone calls to be made or taken.  If I get caught doing this, I'll be in more trouble."

"Well then why do it?" Yami asked, folding his arms.

"I have to tell Jounouchi about the spell!  When's the next full moon?"  Yugi was so excited that his fingers were trembling as he dialed Jounouchi's number.

Yami laughed to himself and walked back into Yugi's room.  Throughout their partnership, Yugi had put his trust in Yami in situations in which his life had hung in the balance.  _Now it is my turn to trust in him, Yami thought to himself.  __To trust that he will be there for me as he always has been, my sweet aibou.  And it is up to me to trust in myself enough to live again…and to find the purpose that aibou is so certain exists for me here. _

Yugi, meanwhile, had hung up the phone.  He came back into his room and sat down on the bed.  "Guess what?" he said.  "Jounouchi says the next full moon is in two weeks.  My punishment will be over by then!"

"Yugi, it just occurred to me," Yami said.  "What is your grandfather going to say when there are two of us in the house at the same time?"

Yugi thought for a minute.  "I guess we can tell him about the Sen Nen Puzzle…"

Yami looked doubtful at this solution.

"He was the one who told me about the heart of the cards!" Yugi pointed out reassuringly.  "He might take some convincing, but I think that we can manage it."

The next two weeks passed with agonizing slowness.  Yugi threw himself into his work, if for no other reason, for the distraction it provided.  He could not stop thinking about he and Jounouchi as a couple, however.  No longer would they have to love one another in miserable secrecy, wondering how long they could deceive Yami, or if they were fooling him at all.   Yugi found that with Kaiba gone, life went more smoothly, even while he was grounded.  There was hardly any room in his mind for gloom and melancholy.  Yami fell quiet the week before the full moon was to rise, but Yugi gathered from his yami's busy thoughts that he was busy with memorizing the spell and with preparing his own heart for the transition from spirit to flesh.

At last the fateful night arrived.  Yugi remembered to leave Sugoroku advanced notice of his departure as well as a note – just to be on the safe side.  The moon ascended the heavens like a flawless pearl.  Night settled gently upon Domino City like sheer blue and purple gauze.  Silver pools of moonlight twinkled in places that were normally dark.  It was an ideal night for Yami's spell.  

Yugi, Jounouchi, and Yami agreed that afternoon to meet in the City Park.  Beds of night-blooming flowers filled the air with sweet perfume and reflected the moon's radiance like giant white gems.  As Yugi waited for Jounouchi, the Sen Nen Puzzle caught the light and shimmered as if it rivers ran through its cracks.  Jounouchi arrived just as clouds spilled across the moon, making the light like lace upon the ground.

"Aibou," Yami said.

Yugi smiled at Jounouchi before he traded bodies with Yami.  Yugi remained transparent beside the two of them.  

"Touch the Sen Nen Puzzle," Yami told Yugi.  The spirit's hands were already closed around the Sen Nen Puzzle in the physical realm.  

As Yugi took hold of the puzzle, it seemed that the golden pyramid pulsed with the energies emitted from the silver night.  Yami began to chant in a language Yugi could not understand.  The sounds trickled and thundered like a great river that becomes a wall of rushing, tumbling water at the end of its journey.  Yami's shadow loomed tall behind him, inky dark against the moonlit grass.  Yugi gasped in amazement as Yami's shadow split down the middle, becoming two shadows. One was unquestionably Yami's shadow, the outline of a proud man's body.  The other shadow, slender and boyish, Yugi recognized as his own.  He stared at the double shadow, transfixed.  Suddenly the moonlight was so bright that it seared his eyes.  Tears ran down his face.  Yugi reached up to wipe them away and then realized that his hand was solid.  The moonlight could not pass through it.  He looked up at Yami, who had a look of contented resolve about him.  Then his gaze fell upon Jounouchi.  The blonde's hair shone golden in the moonlight.  His eyes were as amber, shining with more love than Yugi ever thought that one person could bear for another.  

"Yami, you did it!" Yugi said.  "_Arigatou, mou hitori no boku_."

Yami smiled and raised his hand in parting.  "_Ja na, aibou.  Don't stay out too late," he said before he left._

Yugi turned to Jounouchi.  "Jounouchi…" His heart beat a little faster.

"Yugi…"  Jounouchi drew Yugi close to him.  For several minutes, they remained clasped in one another's embrace, each savoring the other's nearness.

"I love you," Yugi whispered.

"I love you too," Jounouchi said.  "I always will."  With that, Jounouchi pressed his warm lips to Yugi's.  

_Never, _Yugi thought as he and Jounouchi shared their passionate kiss, _Never will I forget this moment._

Fin.

{*******************************************************************************************************}

Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to read this fic.  

Special thanks to people who were kind enough to review and sort of keep me in touch with the 'pulse' of my readers.

My little note at the end of this fic.  You are the future!  Don't let reading become a dying art!  Read, read, read! 


End file.
